


The art of starting a family

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Harem stories [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Child Abuse, F/M, Haruno Sakura Bashing, M/M, Mpreg, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-03-11 06:39:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 15
Words: 73,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13518618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: Naruto never had anyone to say 'welcome home' to him, ever. But then one day, he finds people who will. Will he finally be getting the family that he deserves? Or will the village take that away from his as well?





	1. It began here

**Author's Note:**

> There is always that one moment in everyone's life that they want something so bad that they would even follow the most craziest of ideas. This fic may contain under aged rape/sex, forced pregnancy and/or abortion, child abuse, and incest. You have been warned.

Naruto sighed as he looked up at the ceiling of his room. It was plain white with some cracks and chipping paint here and there. He looked at his room, it was small and dirty, having been broken into just recently made it result in this unsettling mess of broken and scattered things all over his floor. He took in a deep breath and forced himself to sit up even when his body begged him not to. He couldn't stay in bed, not when he had to get this place cleaned up and then go to the academy, it would keep his mind off what had just happened. Looking over at his clock, he saw that he had just under two hours to do the cleaning, get dressed, eats, and then leave before he was too late to take the test. He sighed again and forced himself out of bed, he made a shadow clone to help him get done faster. The shadow clone jutsu was a skill he picked up back when he was still about maybe five or six, some ninja had broken into his apartment and did the jutsu in front of him, thinking that he wouldn't be able to remember it or even do it, but he remembers everything. After picking up and throwing away all that needed to be thrown away, he looked around the room with a small smile, he let his clones mop the floors and make breakfast while he went to take a shower. He turned on the water, getting under the spray quickly and rinsing off before turning off the water and shiver while drying himself off. He's never had a hot shower before, let alone a warm one. He looked in the mirror and practiced to smile the smile that he usually had on while he was out in the village, but when he looked at himself in the mirror, he could barely recognize himself. His skin was pale, his eyes were dull, there were bags under his eyes that made him look like he hasn't slept in a very long time. He was skinny, no, he was boney actually. His hair was dull and long, he's never taken time to actually cut it, why would he? It's not like anyone cared about what he looked like, so neither did he. Leaning away from the mirror, he decided to just put up a henge on himself today, practicing to smile is a waste of time when it can't reach your eyes. 

 

"Here, this is all that's left for this left from last month," said one of his clones as he came up to him with a small breakfast. 

 

The original Naruto looked down at the single piece of toast and egg, looks like he'll have to go shopping later. "Thanks," he says taking the plate from the clone and placed it on the table. He pulled on his clothes quickly and ate, it wasn't much, but it would have to do. When he was done, he looked at the calendar and some hope-filled him. Today was the graduation exams, he was going to become a ninja even if it killed him. For the first time in forever, a real smile planted itself on his lips as he pulled on his shoes and exited the small apartment, "let's do this." He did a little stretch and took off, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, he made his way to the academy, he was going to focus on being a ninja today, nothing else mattered. Running at a quick jogging pace, he made it to the academy just in time, he entered the room and found a seat that was available. However, that seat happened to be next to...Sasuke, he sighed again but sat down since there didn't seem to be too many seats left for him to pick from. Looking over at Sasuke, he still wondered what those girls saw in him, it's not like he was all that cute or anything, if anything, there were way more guys that was cuter than Sasuke out there. Though he thought this to be true, he decided to ignore the guy and focus on passing today's test, he had managed to take a sneak peek at it the night before made note of the different possible answers for each one. There were at least three different test papers for the class to take today so that no one would be able to cheat off of their neighbor, and he had made sure to review everything he knew from his past years in the academy. 

 

"I made it here first!" Came the screams of two girls in the back of the classroom, not for the first time since he in-rolled did Naruto not wonder what was wrong with his classmates. They were way too loud, not a very good trait to have in this line of work, and they keep fighting over one guy with words. If they were truly serious to see who was strongest to get with the Uchiha brat, Naruto thought that they should fight it out already. Stop trading insults and start trading blows, it would be way more effective in his opinion than to make all this noise, what's more, they would be doing some actual training for once. He knew the difference between a person that is training, and a person that isn't, and they aren't.

 

Before Naruto could think any further, Sakura ran over to him, but he wasn't paying attention to her. "Move out of the way dobe, I want to sit next to Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura yelled.

 

Naruto pulled himself from his thoughts, he looked at Sakura and then the seat between him and Sasuke. He could tell that Sasuke noticed that there was a seat next to him that was open, and he was glaring at the blond to not let the pink haired sit there. Naruto shrugged, "sure, why not?" He got up from his seat and let her take the one next to him so that she could be in the middle of the row, next to 'her' Sasuke-Kun' like she wanted.

 

Sakura looked at the blond as if he was sporting a second head, "you didn't do anything to that seat, did you baka?" She asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

 

Naruto gave her a blank stare, "do you want the seat or not?" He asked her, she humph'd and went to take the seat while Ino and the other fangirls stared at Naruto as if he was the new enemy of all women. He turned to them when he sat down, "if you guys really wanted to sit by him that badly, then you should have come over to this seat sooner." He stated as he put head down on the desk.

 

"You Baka! That was my seat, why'd you have to give it to the forehead?" Ino yelled as she smashed her hand down on the other blond's head.

 

"OWW! What did you do that for Ino?" Naruto yelled at her as he held his head.

 

"Because you're a baka that gave away my seat! I was supposed to sit next to Sasuke-Kun!" Ino fumed.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Oh please, this wasn't your seat, if it was, you would have been sitting in it by the time I came in and took mine. You can't get mad if you didn't reach the seat first, it's first to come first serve, haven't you ever heard the saying before?"

 

"Troublesome," came a tired drawl, "Ino, just take your seat, he's right. None of you who wanted to sit by Sasuke was sitting by him until Sakura asked Naruto for the seat. I don't see what the big deal is about it, it's just a seat, not a wedding proposal." 

 

Ino was ticked off by that and was aiming to hit Shikamaru upside the head but then Iruka-sensei came into the room. "Alright everyone, take your seats so that we can start the exams," he said in a happy tone as Mizuki walked in behind him. Ino turned around and marched to the seat that was right behind Sasuke and Sakura and sent death glares to both her and Naruto. Though Naruto wasn't focused on her anymore, he was far too focused on remembering the answers that he came up with for the test yesterday, it may be cheating, but he was going to be a ninja. What was the point of becoming a ninja if you couldn't find out the answers to the test or get an advantage without getting caught? Hello, it was in the job description. Iruka and Mizuki passed out the test when Naruto got his test, he noticed something off about it, there were none of the questions he saw on the paper from the page he looked through the night before. He knew which test was going to be for his class because he checked all three answer keys that had the name and class that went with the test. Then he comes to the conclusion that this was probably the wrong test so he raised his hand and Iruka came over. "Yes, what is it Naruto?"

 

Naruto held up the paper for Iruka to see, "I'm sure, but some of these questions look a little funny to me. Are this really the questions that I need to answer to become a ninja?" He whispered just loud enough for only him and Iruka to hear.

 

Iruka gave Naruto the benefit of the doubt this once and humored him, "huh...?" He looked a the questions one by one, reading them over, it didn't make sense, one question was asking how fast a person need to run while being chased by ten feet tall chicken. He shook his head, "no, this is not my test," he made a hand seal, "kai," and watched as the genjutsu was lifted. He frowned as he saw his original questions, he handed back the paper to Naruto for him to see, "here, this should do it. Who gave you this test?"

 

"Mizuki-sensei," Naruto stated as he took back his test and started on it. Now that he knew for sure that it was a genjutsu he had seen on the paper, he made a note to watch out for things like that in the future. He was happy that he could get to the real test now, and thanks to his skills from sneaking into the school to take a look at the test, he knew he would pass. He was writing down the answers so fast that he barely needed to read the whole question, in reality, since he was able to study at the library or in other public places since learning the henge jutsu, he already soaked up all the information needed to pass. Iruka watched the blond in a little bit of awe as the boy wrote answer after answer, he decided to leave him alone so that he could finish and not draw attention to himself. Iruka was nearly back at his desk for ten whole minutes before Naruto waved Iruka over to him again, Iruka frowned wondering if the blond needed help, which wasn't allowed, he would have to tell him that once he got back there. Reaching to Naruto again, he opened his mouth to tell Naruto that he couldn't get help when Naruto held up his paper to him, "I'm finished," he whispered to the scared chunin at the questioning look he got back 

 

"No way," Iruka said taking the paper from Naruto.

 

"Iruka, is there something wrong?" Mizuki asked as he also came over to see what all the fuss was about. He looked at the paper and was impressed, "whose paper is that?" He asked, causing everyone to look over at the two.

 

"I-it's Naruto's," Iruka said, still not believing it. "But how?"

 

"I bet he cheated, there's no way that the dobe could have finished before me or even Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura's voice pierced through the silence of the classroom, in actuality, she was just bursting the eardrums of everyone there.

 

"Yeah well whatever, think what you like, but I made it a point to pass this test this time around, and I'm not leaving here until I do!" Naruto said with a determined look in his eyes as he glared at Sakura.

 

"Yeah right, a dobe like you-"

 

"Sakura, that's enough, now we're still in testing mode and I would like every one of you to get back to work now. If you don't finish by the end of the time, then you fail this part of the exam and you need all three to pass," Iruka stated as he walked back down to his seat. Mizuki threw a glare at Naruto, who ignored it, before going back to his own seat, when the end of the first part was over, Iruka went around to collect all the test. Whoever was not finished was made to leave, "okay everyone, follow me outside so that we can move onto the second test." The kids all lined up and left the classroom while Mizuki stayed behind to grade the test, it was a good thing that Naruto did the test in pen or else Mizuki would have erased the whole thing, earning him a zero for the first part.

 

Once everyone was outside, Shikamaru kept an eye on Naruto, he had started when they were doing the test, but now he was watching him more closely. He noticed a few things, one, Naruto wasn't smiling today, he's always smiling. Two, he didn't add 'chan' to Sakura's name, which he always did. Then he finishes the test first before anyone else, another weird thing that could not be denied. He waited and waited and watched as Naruto was called up to the post to throw his weapons, he made a perfect score on it causing everyone to whine and complain about him cheating. They just couldn't accept the fact that there was someone out there that could be better than Sasuke. Shikamaru sighed and they all went back inside to wait for the final test to start after everyone finished all the parts of the second test, including taijutsu. By then, Mizuki came out to be the 'dummy' for the matches and had to get hit at least once for them to pass, Sasuke managed to just barely get to hits in, but Naruto scored three, it would have been four if the match hadn't have ended. Once everyone was back in their seats, with Naruto sitting in the back this time, Shikamaru decided that he should get some answers to his questions.

 

"Hey, mind if I sit?" He asked the blond male.

 

Naruto lifted his head from the desk to turn sleepy eyes on the Nara before shrugging and going back to sleep. Shikamaru was thinking of ways to start off his question in a way that didn't draw suspicion, when Naruto asked, "what do you want to know?"

 

"Um," Shikamaru looked at Naruto, not expecting him to ask that he started, "so, you studied a lot for the test, huh?"

 

"Of course, it's my ticket out of this damn school, why wouldn't I?" Naruto answered without lifting his head or turning to face him, "you expected me to fail, didn't you?"

 

"No, it's not that, it's just...It's more of a surprise to see you change so drastically after all the time I've known you," Shikamaru said as he leaned back in his seat to stare at the ceiling. He heard Naruto move next to him when he looked back, he came face to face with dull blue eyes, which he could have been much brighter a second ago.

 

Naruto leaned away from him after a few seconds, "you're hiding a lot of your skills too, so don't go around pointing fingers." Shikamaru looked at blond for a long while and could not help but feel that there was way more than Naruto was hiding that he could think to imagine.

 

**To be continued...**


	2. The deal

Naruto was in a bad mood, why? Because he didn't pass the genin exams like he was hoping to. Don't get the wrong idea, because Naruto did everything just right, he passed every other part of the test, making it so that his substitution justu and his replacement jutsu worked without hand signs. 

 

But that was not the problem.

 

You see, for some reason, when he did his shadow clone justu, instead of the regular clone jutsu, all the teachers in the room were impressed. They even praised him for learning such a jutsu without being a genin yet. However, that did not mean that they would look over the fact that he did not make a regular clone, just like the other students did and thus failed him for it. Naruto was not blind, he knew that this was the plan they were cooking up after they saw him make the hand signs, he just didn't think that they would be so petty about this. Now he sat outside on the swings watching as the parents picked up their children. He even heard a pair of old hags talking about him as if he was the Kyuubi and not it's container. Yep, Naruto knew about the Kyuubi, but he has never said anything about it since he knew that it would only lead to problems with old man Hokage. He didn't care what they or the old man had to say about it all, but he really did wish that they didn't take it out on him for no reason at all. He looked back at the records on that night as well, not only was no one in the village unharmed, only a few outside civilians and some ANBU had died that night. When he was younger, the old man would leave him in the office alone while he went to get them some snacks, he would sneak about to get see if he could find out anything about his parents and where he came from. What he found was that when the Kyuubi attacked, there were many ninjas that went to go and fight it, mostly the ANBU, and some jonin were fighting the giant kitsune outside of the village's walls. Not inside of the village like everyone seems to believe. The attack led to the death of many, outside of the village, the ANBU ranks to a big hit because of it and some of the smaller villages close by were also affected by the fight. But no one inside of Konoha had died. As for the Yondime and his wife, they were nowhere to be found and they were reported MIA since then. That was something that Naruto had wondered about since he read that little piece of information, making note of it so he could look into it further. Where would the Yondime and his wife go? Why would they let everyone believe that they were both dead? However, the biggest question that Naruto had was, why didn't they want him? Yes, Naruto knew who his father was, and guessed that since that they were married, his wife was his mom. It wasn't hard to see, looking at him and then the picture of the Yondime, were the villagers blind?

 

Anyway, back to the present.

 

As Naruto was busy thinking of all the possibilities of that night, his birthday, Mizuki walked up to him talking about some secret test. Naruto wasn't really paying attention, he was sure that this was a setup, but then again, what more did he have to lose? He was bored with doing nothing but sulk and think, so instead, he was going to make use of his time by testing his skills at stealth.

* * *

 

 

Naruto was always in orange, this much will always be true. For now. Naruto was also known as the loudest, hyperactive knucklehead, this much was not true, far from it actually. Naruto Uzumaki was actually a thoughtful person that had been through way more than any ordinary orphan. Because he was always attacked, Naruto gained a skill set that allowed him to go unnoticed unless someone went out of their way to look and find him. Then came the orange jumpsuit. Who could miss a kid with bright golden locks, large blue eyes, and an absence amount of bright orange clothing? It was looking at a ball of color for christ sake! However, Naruto Uzumaki, the brightest ball of sunshine out there, had stolen the forbidden scroll right from under the Hokage and his ANBU's nose! HA, and they had the nerve to call  _him_ the dead last? So here we are, Naruto was in the clearing that Mizuki had told him to meet him at, while the village was going crazy looking for him, he was busying himself with reading the scroll. He already knew the shadow clone jutsu, so he thought that getting a little more information on other jutsu that he would like to try couldn't hurt, He thought that this was the least that he deserved, after all those times that those stupid sensei's had kicked him out of important classes so he wouldn't learn anything of value. 

 

"Now then, let us see what we got here," he whispered to himself, "some water jutsu from the Nidime Hokage. Some Fire jutsu from the Uchiha's...oh! There's a lightening one from Kakashi-teme? Interesting, I think I'll learn that one next after the Yondime's jutsu. Hmm, I should take some notes," luckily, Naruto had thought ahead and was stocked up with everything that he would need; shuriken, kunai, exploding tags, ninja wire, and some paper with pencils for him to write with. He made a shadow clone and gave it orders to take notes of the jutsu that he wanted to learn, a few minutes later, the bushes behind him made some noise and he got ready for a fight. Only to stand down when he saw that it was Iruka that came through the bushes instead of Mizuki like he had hoped. "Oh, it's just you," the blond said and sat back down in his original spot from before.

 

"It's just me? It's just me! Naruto, do you have any idea what you've done?' Iruka yelled at the blond.

 

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, maybe stole a scroll on the request of my superior?" 

 

Iruka nodded angrily, "that's right, you stole the forbidden scroll of sealing on the-wait..." the chunin sense stopped what he was saying to replay what the blond had said. "What do you mean by that? Did someone ask you to steal the scroll?" He asked curiously.

 

Naruto nodded, "you would do well to know who your friends are, Iruka," he said, purposely leaving off the 'sensei' part. He kind of liked Iruka, but he was only okay with Naruto being his student and that only last throughout a few hours throughout the day. So after school was over, Naruto was nothing more than a monster that killed people to his dark-skinned sensei, though there was no proof to back that claim, there was no one that would believe him if he said so. So why try?

 

Iruka took in Naruto's appearance, he didn't seem bothered by the accusation. In fact, it looked as if he was used to it already, Naruto must have gotten that every day from different people for different things that were also not true. When Iruka came to this conclusion, he started to feel a little bad for the blond and he was about to say something, he had no idea what, when Mizuki arrived asking for the scroll. Iruka put two and two together and he said, "Naruto, whatever you do, don't give Mizuki the scroll, he tricked you into stealing it so that he could frame you!"

 

"Iruka! Don't you have some papers to grade or something? Why are you even here?" Mizuki shouted at the scared chunin, "in fact, I know that you hate him too, he's the one that took away your parents!"

 

This was not true because Iruka's mother was actually found to have terminal cancer the week before and had just as long to live. While Iruka's father was already dying from a rare and fatal blood disease, one that he had been born with and the recent news of his wife was dying as well was too much for and he died the same day as her. Iruka didn't know all this yet though because he's never wanted to look at his parent's files because it reminded him too much of them. But Naruto did and knew what Mizuki was trying to do, he wondered  _" was everyone under a huge ass genjutsu when this attack happened or what? "_   Knowing that he wouldn't be able to find out anything if he wasn't trying to figure things out himself, he was the best at digging up secret after all, not that anyone in the village knew that though. He sighed and got up from his spot, "oi, Mizuki, why do you guys hate me so much?" He asked plainly as he turned around to face the two bickering chunin.

 

"Ha, you want to know so bad, Kyuubi brat, then fine, I'll tell you," Mizuki said as he smirked at the blond.

 

"Mizuki no, you know that is forbidden!" Iruka yelled at the silver-haired man, who ignored him.

 

"The reason that everyone hates you is that you ARE the Kyuubi! You killed tens of thousands of people in this village!" Mizuki stated and laughed.

 

"Mizuki you bastard!"

 

"Shut up Iruka, he's the one who asked, ha, and what's more, there was even a law that was passed." Mizuki went on staring at Naruto with hatred, "the law stated that no one was allowed to tell you that you are a monster and you always will be, but...now that you've been so kind to steal the scroll for me, I must thank you. FOR MAKING ME A HERO!!" He laughed again as he prepared to throw one of the giant shurikens on his back at Naruto, but then he finally noticed something, Naruto wasn't in shock or awe, he didn't even have fear written on his face. Oh well, that didn't matter to Mizuki, since it only reinforced the thought he had of Naruto in his mind, he thought that Naruto was a monster and that would never change, no matter how good his grades must have been before Mizuki had started sabotaging them with the other teachers. He took one of the shurikens from his back and threw it with great force at the young blond, but this is when things got interesting.

 

Naruto was thinking about what he was hearing and made a mental note to look into that night again. There must have been something that he missed that must not have been documented on paper officially, but that was for later. Right now he had to help Iruka, Naruto hadn't made a move and he was sure that the chunin next to him thought that he was too in shock to move and was already moving towards him to stop the shuriken from causing untold damage to his student. Time seemed to slow down for Naruto because he could see everything that was going to happen, everything around him became much sharper than before and he could see where the weapon was going to land if he didn't act quickly. Rushing forward, he pushed Iruka out of the way and then grabbed the weapon from mid-air before tossing it right back at the mad-man at his top speed. The large shuriken came barreling through the air quicker than Naruto had expected it to since he hadn't practiced throwing things with real living things to practice his aim on, he was shocked. He watched as the shuriken plowed right through Mizuki's middle and then kept going until it got stuck in another second tree after it sliced through the first tree that it came across. Things came back in normal speed and he was not sure if he had just been imagining things just now, but then he looked up to see the two halves of his once chunin instructor falling to the ground and his other one landing in the bushes where he had pushed him out of the way. Naruto blinked at this site, he couldn't believe what was going on, just then a clone of him came running into the clearing, looking like it was going to tell him something when he froze. The clone was just standing there with a disbelieving look on its face, Naruto was getting tired all of the confusion, so he dispelled the clon and got his memories, he was then shocked himself. He couldn't believe what was going on, he needed to get to a lake or some reflective surface right now! so without waiting to see if Iruka was alright, which was probably wasn't, since he wasn't hit or anything, and then speed off to the closest body of water. He ran until he saw a rive nearby and stopped near it, he got to his knees and slowly looked into the water, he stared so long that the image was burned into his brain.

 

"Naruto? Naruto what's wrong?" Iruka asked as he came up behind Naruto after managing to follow the blond when he ran off moments ago. Naruto slowly stood back up and turned to face Iruka, needless to say, Iruka was having some sort of a mini heart attack, "N-N-Naruto, w-w-what's w-wrong w-with your e-e-eyes?" He asked shakily.

 

Naruto looked Iruka over, it seemed that he was not dreaming this up then because he had pinched himself twice since he reached the water. He looked back into his reflection, "I don't know, but somehow, I have the rennigone...and the sharingone."

* * *

 

 

**Hokage tower that same night**

 

Hiruzen was staring wide-eyed at the blond before him and so was the council. No one moved, no one spoke, hell, no one could even think! How Naruto Uzumaki, the supposed 'demon brat' got both the renningone AND the shringone was an absolut mystery. Finally, Hiruzen got his wits about himself and spoke up, he cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention, "Naruto, why don't you tell everyone what happened to your eyes?" He asked, knowing that if he didn't get an answer out of the boy soon, he would probably worry himself into an early gray, not that he wasn't already doing that because of the council and this same boy. At some point, while everyone else was looking for Naruto, Iruka brought both him and the scroll back in one piece and a council meeting was called at the same time. But with Naruto's eyes like they are now, the meeting was at a standstill. 

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I was told by Mizuki-teme to bring him the scroll so that he could make me a ninja, but he lied and was going to kill me. Iruka showed up and tried to get in the way after Mizuki told me that I was the Kyuubi or whatever, but I pushed him out of harm's way when Mizuki-teme threw his Windmill Shuriken. When he threw it, everything looked like it was all slow and stuff so I was able to act and counterattack him. But when I threw the shuriken, it went flying faster than I thought it would and he was cut in two and that was when I ran to look in the river and found out that my eyes changed." He reported.

 

More silence came and then some yelled out, "KILL HIM AND TAKE HIS EYES! THEY SHOULD GO TO SASUKE-KUN!" 

 

Soon all the civilian's were yelling similar things while the shinobi talked quietly among themselves. Hiruzen had enough of the noise, "silence!" He yelled the room was silent once more, "good, now here is what we are not going to do..." he listed everything that the civilians were asking him to do when he was done with that, he sighed and sat back in his chair. "Now here is what we are going to do, "I know that there is a great deal of you who wish to have the Uchiha clan back in our village again, so since Naruto has acquired the sharingone and the renningone, he will be the one to do so."

 

"What?! Hokage-sama are you out of your mind, that the demon brat, not an Uchiha by blood!" Called one of the civilian sides.

 

"Sasuke is the only one that can bring back his clan by birthright!" Came another civilian.

 

Shikaku sighed, "I hate to admit it, Hokage-sama, but they do make a good point." He said in his usual lazy drawl, "Naruto is not an Uchiha of blood that we know of, I don't know how he got the sharingone, but it may be possible. Still, we don't know if he would be able to carry on the bloodline of the clan is we allow him to do as you say." There were nods of agreement in most of the members of the council, "however, that may bit be true for the other eye." He said with a thoughtful look on his face, he turned to the kage, "do you happen to know anything about it?"

 

Hiruzen nodded, "yes, the rennigone was once told to be a dojutsu of the gods, giving that person god-like abilities, but only a very rare few can wield it. If you looked into its history, you would know that it's power is a mystery because it can provide an extra ability to the different wielder." He explained, "although the powers of the rennigone is a mystery, there is one power that comes with the renningone that is granted to every male user."

 

"Which would be?" Hiashi asked, curious if he could find a way to get ahold of this new power by offering his eldest daughter up to the blond.  _"Maybe Hinata will have some use to me after all and I won't need to put the seal on her."_

 

"One of my students had the pleasure of training a young boy with the rennigone, he told me that this boy was able to take both male and female and impregnate them thanks to the rennigone's god-like ability," Hiruzen explained. Then he looked at Naruto who seemed to be uninterested in this conversation, "what is your opinion on this, Naruto?"

 

Naruto blinked his matched eyes at the Hokage until he realized that everyone was staring at him now, "huh, what?" He asked making some of the council upset with what seemed to be disrespect, be went on before they could start yelling again. "I was listening to all of you speak, but then I realized that I shouldn't really be here right now because of the scroll thing. Plus I can't really comment on anything like that, you know since I'm not a ninja and all that."

 

Some civilian's smirked at the fact that Naruto didn't make genin, Hiruzen frowned when he saw their smirking. He knew that they had done something, "Furthermore," Naruto went on, "since I'm not a ninja, I'm still a civilian, and the civilian council had made it clear to me that I am not allowed to have any children." This made the civilian side cringe when they realized what they had just done all those years ago, turning to their kage, they knew that they were in big trouble now.

 

Hiruzen was pissed, no, maybe more than that, but he was definitely angry right about now. He managed to calm down though and spoke, "Naruto since you now have somehow awakened two great and powerful bloodlines, I am instating you as a tukubatsu genin. Also, I would like you to meet me in my office after your team placements tomorrow evening, I will have your new living situation ready for you by then, along with some papers that you will need to sign."

 

Naruto raised his eyebrow, "what are these papers about?" He asked.

 

"That we will discuss tomorrow evening when you get to my office," Hiruzen said with a smile. "You must be tired, you should go home and rest, tomorrow will be a big day for you." Naruto shrugged and walked out of the office, when the blond was gone, he laced his hands together and looked around the room. "Now, who among you are willing to right a few wrongs of the past?"

* * *

 

 

**With Naruto**

 

When Naruto got home in the red light district, he was tired, actually tired. It was a first for him, he's nearly done that much physical stuff other than taijutsu, and then stealing the scroll. That didn't take much effort, but then again, he had just somehow awakened two dojutsu, one in each eye, and he was sure that had something to do with it. He walked into his bathroom and looked at his eyes. One eye had sharingone, but it only had two tomoes in them. The other eye was the rennigone, it was purple with ripple patters going from the pupil outward. He's heard stories and read about the first dojutsu and only seen snippets of it in storybooks of fairy tail, making him wonder if it was actually real or not, but since he was looking right at it in one eye, he guessed that it was. After looking at both eyes in the mirror, he slowly stopped the chakra that he had been channeling into his eyes when Mizuki first threw the shuriken at him and Iruka, it must have been subconscious because he didn't realize that he was doing it until now.His eyes turned back to their dullish blush hues as he breathes a sigh of relief. 

 

**"Kit how so you like your new eyes?"**

 

Naruto pouted at the gleeful sound of the rumbling voice,  _"so you did this to me, huh?"_

 

 **"Well it wasn't the god damn tooth fairy, I'll tell you that much!"** The voice laughed,  **"but yeah, it was me. Don't start thanking me or nothing, I just thought you could use something to give you an edge in your fight, so I found these two bloodlines and some others just laying about and activated two of them. However, since I did that, it looks like the others may activate too, but much later."**

 

_"You do know that because of this, they are planning to marry me off now for my eyes, right?"_

 

**"Hey, hey, hey, no they are not, come on now, they can't do that."**

 

_"We're you asleep when the old man seems to suggest that very thing?"_

 

 **No, I was wide away from the whole while, however, they aren't marrying you are nowhere."**  Naruto could just feel the big grin on Kurama's face right now, it made him want to wipe it off himself. **" They're making you take a harem!!"**

 

_"Excuse me, a what now?"_

 

 **"A harem baka, pay attention when your sensei is speaking to you!"**  Kurama huffed, Naruto rolled his eyes,  **"because of your eyes, they want to make you have a harem. A harem is when one male marries a lot of women. Although I know you don't always like them, it's okay because I gave you the rennigone! Like the old man said, you can have your pick and pick as many as you like, but remember our deal when you do."** Kurama's voice slowly faded away at the end and Naruto sighed as he left the bathroom and went to bed, tomorrow wasn't even here yet, and he was already tied just from thinking about what may happen next.

 

**To be continued.....**

 


	3. Turn back time! Uzuamki clan reborn!

Naruto woke up the next day feeling very unimpressed, why? because he was not ready to go back to school. He didn't like doing to school after his second year in the academy. There seemed to be a lecture for everything, and even though he was able to learn just about everything he could during those lectures before being falsely accused by some idiot, he was able to learn ten times more by going to the library and studying on his own. It was a little disappointing to find out that everything they were learning in the academy was just the watered down versions of the stuff you can read in the library. However, he was required to go and 'make friends his own age', or so the Sandime had put it after he told the old man about how school was boring to him. But, since this would be his last day there, he might as well just go, right? He was supposed to be meeting his new team today, so he had to go. Unwillingly, Naruto got out of bed and went about his usual morning routine, but skipping over breakfast since the previous day's events had prevented him from going food shopping, not that he had the money to get all that he would need anyway. Stupid villagers always want to overcharge him for spoiled food, they should be lucky that he hadn't broken down and resorted to killing everyone he saw that looked at him wrong.

 

After his shower, Naruto went to his closet and started throwing out every orange piece of clothing that he could lay his hands on until his closet was free of the bright color. He never liked orange, to begin with. He settled on a small selection of a black long sleeve top with a V-neck and black ANBU pants. He took out a pair of black sandals that he found in a second-hand store, he cleaned them up rather well if you asked him, making sure that he reinforced them where it was needed and put them on before heading out. Since this was his last day going to the academy, but he still hated the place with a passion, he took his time walking to the building with a casual, lazy stroll. There really wasn't much of a rush to get there, so why hurry? He'd still get a team even when he's not present, or is slightly late, right? The old man seemed to have wanted to have him already made a chunin, but knew that Naruto didn't like jumping ranks just because he decided to show them a little power.

 

On his way to the school, he admired the way everything in the village worked up until now. He was the target of everyone's jokes, he always seemed to be in the right place for people to blame him for something he didn't do, and whenever the adults saw him, he knew they were talking about him behind his back. But know, they were glaring at him, glares so hot that it would have set him on fire if he actually gave a flying fuck, but he didn't. He was a new man, starting today, he would show them who he truly was. Naruto managed to reach the academy within about an hour of casual walking, he took an extra few minutes to make it to his actual class. When he walked in, Iruka was just getting to team six and stopped to look at him. Their eyes connected for a brief moment before Naruto looked away to find an open desk, he found one in the back and sat down facing the window, not bothering to explain why he was late or what he was doing, not even a hello to anyone that thought they were friends with him. In reality, Naruto had no friends, not really, he wore his headband around his neck, letting his hair fall where they may, he didn't brush it because he didn't feel the need to. This new aura he was giving off as he sat there just screamed 'I don't care' and it was starting to turn on some of the Uchiha's fangirls, and some of his fanboys as well. He thought that this was rather cute, in a way, and smirked to himself. 

 

"Hey! What's the dead last doing here? I thought this was the class of graduates!" Yelled Kiba Inuzuka, not Naruto's favorite person to be around most of the time, he has only liked the noisy boy because he could pull a good prank every now and then, but not as good as Naruto could.

 

When Naruto didn't say anything, Iruka explained, "Um, do to some show of skills yesterday, Naruto was able to graduate with the rest of you." The Chunin said, before going back to calling out the rest of the members for team six, then he got to team seven, "Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha-" Sakura gave an annoying scream and yelled her victory to her rival behind her. Iruka managed to get her to sit down though and called out the last member of the team, "Naruto Uzumaki, team eight will be...." Naruto blocked out everything else that was said and just lay his head down on his desk. He ignored the whispers of people talking about him and why he was on a team with Sasuke, but most of all, why didn't he scream out happily when he found out that he was on a team with the pink one, he really didn't care to listen and went back to sleep.

 

"WAKE UP DOBE!" Came the scream of someone that Naruto would rather not look at right now, seriously, was pink even her natural hair color?

 

Naruto only responded to Sakura's yell by getting up and stretching his sore muscles, he looked around the room to find that he had been asleep longer than he had first thought and was wonder what time it was. "What's going on?" He asked with a yawn.

 

"It's lunchtime you lazy ass, get your ass and leave so I can eat with Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura yelled at him.

 

Naruto looked around the empty room and wondered where this 'Sasuke-Kun' of hers had gone because they were the only two left in the room.He shrugged his shoulders, "Alright, have at it," Naruto said as he opened the window that he was sitting next to and jumped out. He didn't stay long enough to see if Sakura had figured out that Sasuke had left her long in the room or not, but he knew that he would get blamed for him 'getting away when she wasn't looking' or something like that. He was so tired of dealing with fangirls, it was shocking how stupid they can be sometimes. Anyway, Naruto walked about on the academy grounds looking for a place that he could sleep, whenever he was hungry as a kid but didn't have money to buy food, he would just good to sleep for a while before going into the forest to hunt. It helped train him in tracking and stealth, just as much as that orange jumpsuit had, he was able to sneak into ANBU HQ and set off paint bombs and dye their spare uniforms while they chased his clones all around the village. Said clones may or may not have also deflected capture by throwing hard to remove pain bombs at his pursuers. After finding a good spot to nap before hunting, he lay there and watched the clouds for a couple of minutes before closing his eyes for just that long, he could sense someone watching him. "You can come out now, Shikamaru," he called out to the air, for a long moment, nothing happened, but slowly, Shikamaru came out from his hiding spot.

 

"How'd you know it was me?" Shikamaru asked as he sat next to the blond before laying down to look up at the clouds.

 

"I could spell the soap that you used in your hair this morning," Naruto said with a small smirk. HIs eyes were still closed, but he could feel when Shikamaru turned to look at him with surprised eyes, "just kidding, I sensed you coming."

 

"Oh," Shikamaru said starting to relax again, he didn't know why, but hearing Naruto says that he could smell him was a little weird to him. Especially since he didn't want anyone to know that he ran out of shampoo this morning and had to use his mother's coconut scented on, it wasn't as bad as he thought, he would have to look at the brand later when he got home so he could buy himself a bottle.

 

Naruto chuckled and looked over at Shikamaru, "you do smell pretty good today, though," he said with a straight face. Shikamaru was one of those guys in his class that he actually liked and could get along with, he was quiet and thoughtful, which was nice, and he didn't get caught up in all the drama of the class. That had earned him bonus points with the blond right away.

 

Shikamaru couldn't help the slight blush that came onto his face, he looked away from the blond so he couldn't see it. "Whatever, why are you acting so weird today?" He asked, surprising himself that his voice did not shake or stutter from the compliment. 

 

"Weird? What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked as he turned onto his side to get a better view of Nara's blushing face. "Do you mean why I'm not wearing all that orange from before, or why I'm not being loud and asking that pink banshee out on pointless dates? Even though I don't even like girls?"

 

"Yeah, that, w-" Shikamaru paused as he thought about what Naruto said, "you don't like girls?" He asked as he slowly turned his head back to face Naruto and jumped when he realized how close they were now than before. He gulped and decided that sitting up would feel more comfortable with him than laying down.

 

Naruto chuckled again, he was liking the way it was so easy to make Shikamaru blush now. "No, I don't like girls, not in the way that everyone would think. That whole thing with Sakura was just to fit in...and to annoy her sometimes, but no one needs to know that." He reached his hand up and swiftly took Shikamaru's hair tie away from him, allow Nara's silky smooth hair to fall free passed his shoulders, "why do you keep your hair up all the time? You look much better with it down."

 

Shikamaru was stiff while Naruto took away his hair tie, he couldn't move when Naruto sat up and started running hands through his hair. He barely registered they were still outside before closing his eyes and leaning into the blond's touch. _"Where Naruto's hand's always this soft and gentle?"_ He wondered and he let the blond run his hand through his hair, but he did register the rough hand that pulled him away from Naruto by the arm, and he did register when Ino's voice started yelling at Naruto, Shikamaru opened his eyes and was stunned to see that Ino and Chouji were now standing in front of the blond male, with Ino blocking his view of Naruto as she yelled at him. Shikamaru turned around to see who had grabbed him and was surprised to see that it was a man with a beard, tan skin, and a cigarette hanging from his mouth, he wore the usual join uniform with an added white sash hanging around his waist. Was this supposed to be their jonin sensei?

 

Naruto was a little disappointed when Shikamaru was pulled away from him by a jonin with a beard. He was having fun playing with Shikamaru's, which was just as soft as he had predicted, and was now being yelled at by Ino, the other banshee of the class. Sheesh, why did everyone like yelling at him so much, was it a game or something? If so, they should stop because it's really annoying, "I don't see what the problem is, I was just touching his hair," Naruto rolled his eyes at his fellow blond as he looked passed her at Shikamaru and the jonin. The man looked a little familiar, where had he seen him before?" 

 

"You don't see the problem because you're an idiot!" Ino screamed at him. "It's against clan rules to have any member outside out the Nara, Akamarichi, and the Yamanaka clan to see Shikamaru's hair down unless married. An even then, only his wife is allowed to see his hair like that!!" 

 

Naruto raised one eyebrow, he was confused by that, "but Shikamaru's not some princess, he's a boy! Why does he have to follow a rule that sounds like it's clearly made for some high priestess women that are promised to a powerful lord or something?" 

 

"Well that's those are the rules, you won't understand because you're not from a clan!" Ino said, mocking him at the end and sticking her tong out at him.

 

"Oh no, make fun of the poor orphan boy why don't you? I bet you wouldn't be so high and mighty if you were the one without a clan and people made fun of you for it!" Naruto said as he got up and marched away from the group. 

 

Ino blew a raspberry at her fellow blond's back, feeling proud of her self for sticking it to the dead last of their class. "ino, that wasn't very nice of you," said the man that had pulled Shikamaru away from Naruto. He would have told Naruto the same thing, but in a more gentler way, but Ino had beaten him to it and Ino doesn't seem to use her head in these types of situations. He sighed and let Shikamaru get back to his feet, "sorry about being so rough on you before, name's Asuma, by the way." The now named jonin said, he tossed his unlit cancer stick in the nearest trash can and took out another one before lighting up, "so, why'd you let him break one of the rules of your clan?" 

 

Shikamaru had already put his hair tie back into place but didn't answer the jonin, instead, he walked over to stand by Chouji. "I don't know you like that, are you supposed to be our sensei or something?" He asked lazily as he took some chips that his friend was offering.

 

Asuma blew out some smoke with a heavy sigh, "fair enough, follow me and I'll let you know who I am."

* * *

 

**With Naruto**

 

Naruto grumbled about being yelled at. How was he supposed to know about clan laws and the like? Iruka, or was it Mizuki? One of the two had kicked him out of class after a kid lied on him for something that he didn't bother remembering, he knew it was a lie though because he remembered getting to class early and not wanting to talk to anyone that day. Why they kicked him out over that little lie, whatever it was, when they saw that he was not bothering anyone, was beyond him. Ino was there too, she was the one that sealed his fate of being kicked out by being the loudmouth that she was, she made it seem like he did something to her without anyone even noticing, where got the proof to back it up was probably done before class. Naruto sighed as he went back to class, he could always just stay in there for now, since he probably was going to get interrupted by his piece again if he didn't. Little did Naruto know that he just may have helped, or hurt, one shy Hyuuga with his earlier declaration of dislike for the opposite sex.

 

Inside the classroom, leaned back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling. He was bored, he hated being bored, being board was like asking for someone to put hot sauce on your cake. No one likes hot sauce cake. So like always when gets bored, he starts to think of new ways to prank people and get away with it. He hasn't done a good prank in about a week, and since he was a ninja now, he might as well take it up a notch. He looked out the window and his eyes made contact with the Hokage mountain. A smile crept onto his face, it wasn't like he hadn't done this prank before, but there was always room for improvements, so this time around, as a gift to the village, the Hokage mountain was going to get another makeover. 

* * *

**2 hours later**

 

Naruto had really outdone himself, he had taken a little under an hour to leave the room, go home, and get his supplies so that he could prank the mountain. He finished his work with a flourish of loud bangs and booms that drew everyone's attention to the mountain, but by then the culprit was already long gone. The first Hokage's head was painted in colors that made him look depressed and sad with flowers and trees sticking out of the top of his head. When the bombs went off, there was a caption hanging under he head that read 'Waah, I'm dead and can't protect the village anymore, even though I started it'. The Second Hokage's head was painted so it looked like he was made of angry, crashing waves, the caption under his head read, 'That dame Yondime stole all my moves and is putting me to shame! I should haunt but he's already dead!'. The third Hokage's face looked like he was a hundred years old, instead of just sixty years old, his caption read 'I'm so wise that you granny gets wet! Show me some respect!'. Naruto made sure to take a few moments to laugh his ass off at that when he was at a safer distance where he wouldn't be caught. Lastly, the Fourth Hokage was painted with gray hair and lots of whisker marks, his caption read 'I lived so fast that when I died, I actually went to the future!'. And with that, the ANBU was off trying to find a one Naruto Uzumaki to charge him for his crime of having too much fun and free time to paint a whole mountain without anyone noticing him doing it! However, Naruto had a plan for that, because while the Hokage mountain was being redecorated, he was sitting in a classroom waiting for his sensei to arrive. He hadn't moved from his seat. Well, actually, that was a lite, he did move, but it was only o redecorate the classroom a little. You see, his thinking led him to the knowledge that since everyone thought him to be stupid, why not perform a prank that required some thought. What Naruto ended up doing, to make things short, was turn the room upside down. 

 

Naruto spent the better part of an hour setting up the desk and chairs in the room, on the ceiling. He first marked all the places where the furniture would go, applied to shinobi strength super glue, and then stuck the desk onto the ceiling. It was quite easy really, but that was not all, he also placed a subtle genjutsu on the door so that whoever walks threw it would see their worst nightmare come to life. But wait, there's more, Naruto had some paint left over from a prank he did about a year ago that allowed whatever he pained to look like it was moving, he also used some of this paint of the Hokage mountain, but just a little so that it would freak out the ANBU. Or whoever was wipping off the paint later. With this moving paint, as he called it, he painted a mural or underwear flying in the breeze on the floor and walls of the classroom, all within an hour of the remaining lunch period. For this reason, Naruto loved the shadow clone jutsu very much. Now then, when everyone came back from lunch, there were many screams of horror coming from people as they walked through the door. One girl looked like she was going to wet herself, another boy looked like he actually had! Sakura was among the group of girls that fainted after seeing 'her' Sasuke dying right before her eyes. Kiba seemed was found whimpering in the corner after he walked in, mumbling something about dresses. Sasuke walked in and had a dark expression on his face when it was his turn, he almost stabbed someone too! Naruto was trying to keep in his laughter, but it was very hard, and he nearly fell from his desk on the ceiling. Shino, Iruka, and Hinata were the only ones that seemed unaffected by the jutsu as the managed to dispell it right away. However, they could not dispell the painting of the varying boxers, briefs, and panties that seemed to float about the floor, making the stoic Shino blush bright red, and Hinata looked about ready to die from the embarrassment. Iruka was stunned by the painting's detain, but tried not to stare all that hard as he went around the room dispelling the genjutsu placed on the other students before Sasuke stabbed someone. Once the students came to their senses, the looked around the room trying to find their desk, only to find the painting and blushed, the girls screamed because some of their panties seemed to be in the picture, and the boys stared with bloody noses. Then they all turned to see Naruto giggling to himself on the ceiling, and they couldn't believe their own eyes, they thought it was another genjutsu, obviously, and tried to dispell it until the jonin sensei came to see the madness that was supposed to be their students. One woman with red eyes was the only person to keep a calm face and call her team, she seemed to want to leave this place before the only sane members of her team break as well. 

 

So here we are now, Naruto was still sitting in his seat, in the back of the room, on the ceiling. His other teammates glaring up at him for nearly an hour now with no sign of their jonin sensei in sight. Naruto sided as the hour went by as he started to remember the events of the day before. He remembered the meeting he had with the council and thought that since his sensei didn't think it was important enough to show up on time, he could meet the man/woman later. He let his chakra stop flowing to his feet and free fall down to the ground before flipping back onto his feet again, he turned to his teammate, "I got a meeting, I'll catch you guys later." 

 

"What? What about our sensei?" Sakura asked, still glaring at him.

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "so what, he didn't show up on time, why should I wait here when I have other things to do?"

 

"What could a dobe like you have to do that's so important?" Sasuke asked, folding his arms in front of him, thinking that he was better than everyone.

 

Naruto glanced back at the Uchiha, "why don't you smile more? You're going to get wrinkles on your face like that," he said turning away and walking to the door. Sasuke blinked at the blond, he wasn't sure what he was expecting, but that wasn't it, why was Naruto such a mystery? "Wait all you want all you want, but if our sensei had any respect for us and actually wanted to meet us, then he would have shown up with the other sensei's. If he would rather waste time rather than get this thing over with, then I don't want to meet him," Naruto then closed the classroom door behind him, not waiting for a response from his team.

* * *

**Hokage tower**

 

Hiruzen had been waiting nearly an hour and a half for Naruto to show up. He thought that he would have to wait much longer than that, considering who he assigned to be the boy's sensei and all. But then his office door was kicked in and standing in the door frame was Naruto, Hiruzen checked his clock to see if it was running three hours fast or something, but when it said that it was only an hour and a half, he looked back at Naruto. "Hello Naruto, glad you can make it," he said, happy that he could have the meeting earlier than he had first thought.

 

"Hey, old man, sorry I'm late, but my sensei didn't feel the need to come on time like the others," Naruto said. He summoned some clones to pick up the door from the ground and repair it, Hiruzen then realized that Naruto had actually kicked the door right off its hinges. He was impressed. "Sorry about the door, by the way, you secretary got me mad and I didn't like the way she was talking to me like I was some dog," he said as he dropped down into the empty seat in front of the Hokage.

 

Hiruzen nodded his head, he didn't realize that Naruto was going to show this side of himself in the meeting. It was a good thing that he found about Naruto's true self a few years back or else he would have been as shocked as the council members standing off to the side in the corner of his office. Speaking of them, "no worries Naruto, by the way, you remember the council from last night, don't you?" The old kage gestured to the other members of the room.

 

Naruto turned lazy eyes to them, "how could I ever forget them?" He said in a chilled voice, his eyes narrowing at the civilian members, "why are they here?"

 

"Because they wanted to offer you something that  _some_ of them had taken away from you," Hiruzen said with pointed eyes at the civilians in the room. They gulped knowing that the Sandime was still onto them. "You will be offered a child of either gender, boy or girl, the choice is up to you, and from the offered selection, you must pick five. The lowest number that you can pick is three, the highest is six."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "a wife? Ah well, I guess that's a start, who's it going to be?" The council was a little put off by his cool answers and started to question their knowledge of the boy sitting before them.

 

Hiashi stepped forward first, "I would like to offer you, my son, Hitsagi," he stated. "He's the same age as you, he's also in your class."

 

Naruto looked at him confused, "I don't know anyone by that name," he said.

 

Hiashi gave a sigh, "no, that is his real name, however, he insists on everyone calling him 'Hinata' instead. It's a small malfunction in his brain that causes him to think he is a she. It happened when a Kumo ninja tried to kidnap him when he was only three years old, that ninja did many things to him and the result is as you have seen of him thus far. He is still a very capable ninja, as one can be in his condition, and since you have the rennigone, I figured that you could find some use for his company, if not for his mind then his body." He spoke as if he was trying to sell life insurance, not that Naruto would really know what that was like since he didn't have enough money for that, but he imagined it would be something sounding sort of like this.

 

"Hinata is actually a boy? Well that's interesting, alright then I'll take him," Naruto said seriously. 

 

Shikaku stepped up next, "troublesome, my wife is going to kill me for this, but I'm going to offer you Shikamaru. I hear you two are on okay terms, it may take a while to get used to, but..." he shrugged. It's not like he didn't care who his son married, he did, he was just distracted on thinking how he could get out of getting killed by his wife when she found out that their only son was pretty much being given away to the village pariah.

 

Surprisingly, Shibi, Shino's father, came up next, "Shino has said many good things about you in the past. I can see know that you did you show him your true self, but still managed to make him feel included and welcome. Will you accept Shino as an acceptable companion for the future?"

 

Naruto nodded to the Abarame, "I don't mind him, he doesn't mind me, so yes."

 

It went on like this until just about every boy and girl of the rookie ninja was called. Naruto then sat back in his chair in front of them, the civilian council had all recommended that  _he_ should have Sasuke's child and feel honored to do so. Although Naruto doesn't feel anything for the last Uchiha, he has made up his mind on who he will choose for this apparent harem that he was somehow talked into. He must remember to eat more ramen later, the fox hated ramen and this was a good way to punish him for forcing him into a harem without talking it over with him first. But at least he'll finally get that family he's always wanted, even though this was not the way he had planned to go about it.

 

"Okay, so I'm going to pick five right now," Naruto announced to them after a few minutes of thinking. "Before any of you ask why I choose who I did, listen to the reason  _before_ you start ranting about it. First, I'll take Shikamaru, he's been a good friend and never judged me before. I'm not taking Chouji because even though he's just as good of a friend as Shikamaru is, it would feel weird to have two best friends marry one person. I will take Hinata because he's interesting I would like to get to know him better, plus I like interesting people. That's two so far, next I'll take Shino, he's a good friend and I like his company. I will _not_ be taking Ino, Sakura, or any of the other civilian girls that were suggested by the civilian council," the civilian's in the room started to protest, but he held up his hand, "listen, honestly, I don't really like fangirls okay? I would like a girl, as a friend, but all the girls that were suggested are fangirls, no one likes fangirls." The civilians stewed in their anger, but said nothing at that, "okay then, so I will take Kiba, he's not so bad when you get to know him, I will take Sasuke, just because of there being so many suggestions for him. that's it."

 

Hiruzen nodded, "since you have picked about five, you are allowed one more. You can pick now or later," he said, Naruto choose later and the kage wrote down the names of the chosen boys and gave the parent or guardian of those choose forms to fill out and to their children. Once the council had left, Hiruzen got to the other reason why he asked Naruto to his office, "okay Naruto, I would like to tell you something very important, it's about your parents."

 

Naruto was not fully focused on the kage, "what is it?"

 

"When they died, they wanted to make sure that you were taken care of, they wanted to make sure that you were safe, even when they couldn't stay with you. So," Hiruzen took something out of his draw and placed it in front of Naruto, "they wanted me to give you this. It's the key to their estate."

 

Naruto stared at the key for a long time, "who-who were they?" He asked.

 

"I had promised them that I wouldn't tell you until you became a chunin," Hiruzen said after a long silence.

 

Naruto shot his eyes up at the old man, glaring at him, "why?"

 

"They have enemies, they wanted to make sure that you were strong enough to protect yourself. So I kept it a secret until now," Hiruzen explained.

 

Naruto was silent for a long time. He remembered all the times that he had seen children with their parents, brothers, sisters, a family that he could not have. He was an orphan, he was hated, and he didn't know why until he met it. Now, when he sitting so close to the answers, one thing kept coming to his mind, "why didn't you tell me about the fox?"

 

**To be continued...**


	4. The art of Seduction

Shikamaru Nara is not the type of guy that can be easily swayed. He was stubborn, he was usually seen as lazy, but it was actually his determination to stay far away from troublesome situations that let people perceive him as such. It was way more troublesome that it was actually worth to tell them that he was not really all that lazy, that could do things fast and accurately enough that he was efficient in most everything he did as long he was actually trying, but he does not want to argue with every single person he meets. So he lets them think that he's lazy. He lets them think that he's best at cloud watching and taking naps. He lets them think that he may never find the right girl unless he thought that she was not too troublesome to marry. That's what he let them think, and that's what he was starting to think himself...until today. Today had been the day that he finally got his team and sensei and that his mom would leave him alone until he at least got close to his twenties before she started bombarding him with questions along the line of a wife and grandchildren. He thought that he would have it easy with his jonin sensei being so laid back and the only bossy person on the team being Ino. He thought that he was allowed to relax after going through the second test and then passing, officially making the Team 10. He thought this all throughout the morning and before lunch started, but then... there was Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, a mystery of a person that he thought he knew until now. Shikamaru thought that the blond-haired, loud mouth, troublemaking prankster was ever going to change and that he was going to continue being the same old Naruto that kept declaring that he was going to be the next Hokage someday. 

 

Boy, was he wrong.

 

When Shikamaru arrived at school today, he didn't see Naruto and thought that the blond failed. Which was a real downer to think about if he was being honest with himself, he kind of hoped that Naruto would pass and actually come close to his dream, if not accomplish it sometime in the future. But then the blond walked into the room in new clothes, dark clothes. It was at that moment of laying eyes upon the dark clothes wearing blond that he knew something major had changed. His previous thoughts of everything being easy and less troublesome until his twenties were soon becoming a distant memory as he stared at the blond. He wanted to know more about him, things like: Why did he change?

 

What made him change?

 

What was he like now?

 

Did he still want to be Hokage someday? 

 

All these questions and more filled his head as he walked through the village. He soon found his legs taking him to a small park near the academy, he didn't fight it, his body was on auto-pilot by now so going with the flow was all could do. He walked around the park, looking around the park lazily, looking for a good spot to lay down to watch the clouds when he saw him. The boy that managed occupy his thoughts at the moment. The memory of the blond boy's hands running through his hair resurfaced itself and in no time at all, he found himself walking up to the blond.

 

"Hey," Shikamaru greeted plainly as he sat next to his former classmate. He was close enough to reach out to him if he wanted to, but still far enough away that he was invading his space.

 

Naruto said nothing as he looked over at Shikamaru for a long, silent moment, they stared at each other until Shikamaru turned away from him to look up at the clouds. He could see a light blush on the lazy boys face and he smiled softly before laying his head down on his lap. Shikamaru jumped a little and almost jumped away from the bench, Naruto's smile grew even wider as he closed his eyes, "Shh, let me rest here for a while, I'll get up soon," he promised as his breathing became light and even. Signaling that he was asleep, or pretending to be.

 

Shikamaru, for all his worth, blushing brighter as he stared at Naruto's head in his lap before turning his head away. A bright blush on his cheeks as he did so, "troublesome," was all he could say as he tried to focus his attention back on the clouds he was watching.

 

Naruto resisted the urge to chuckle at the Nara's response before, instead, he thought back to the words that the Sandime told him before he left the office.  _There is no right or wrong way to go about telling a child that he contains a monster inside of him that could kill millions of lives with the flick of its tail. However, I was wrong in assuming that it was right to keep the secret from you, and for that, I am truly sorry."_ The old kage had apologies to Naruto on bent knees and hands, showing how deeply sorry he was, Naruto could believe that the wise leader he always thought of as a sort of grandfather figure for all these years, got down on his hands and knees to say sorry to him. He wasn't angry at him, but he wasn't happy either. He could have told him in so many ways that he was a container and the village hated him for that and not for something he might have done in his past life or something like that. He could have told him a tail of some other little boy that had the same problem he did and how that boy won over the village he lived in with love and strength that said he would protect the village, not destroy it. Naruto would not have cared if that tail was false or not, he just wanted to be told something before he almost killed himself at seven, and was put into a coma at eight after a particularly harsh beating from the villagers. But he didn't, and now Naruto doesn't feel the same love he once had for the village that he did as a kid. He did not feel happy whenever someone actually looked at him, not through him, like it was done in the past, even though that person look was a cold glare directed at him. He did not care for those hate-filled eyes, those dark whispers behind his back. 

 

He did not care for being alone. Not anymore.

 

Naruto took in a deep breath and savored the scent of freshly cut grass with a hint of wildflowers, and now some coconut mixed in. Shikamaru's usual sent. He wondered if the Nara boy knew that this was what he smelled like, and wondered again if the same boy knew that he loved the scent of wildflowers in the summertime? "Did you know you smell like wildflowers?" Naruto suddenly said with his eyes still closed. 

 

Shikamaru looked down at the blond in his lap, confusion clear on his face, "I what?" He asked.

 

"You smell like wildflowers," Naruto said turning his head to look up at the raven-haired boy, "you also smell like grass and a touch of coconut. Did you know?"

 

Shikamaru shook his head slowly. He could figure that the grass smell was from all the times he's laid in the grass to stare up at the clouds. His mom's shampoo that he borrowed smelled like coconut, he noticed it from the bottle's label and wasn't sure he was going to like but, it turned out that he did. However, the wildflower smell was a mystery to him. He smelled his arms, only coming up with the sent of grass and skin, since he was laying down in the grass earlier before his new team split up to go their own ways, and of course, traces of the coconut from his morning shower, but no wildflowers. This time Naruto did chuckle upon seeing the confused face that Shikamaru made, he wasn't sure why, but he felt something inside of him pulling him to stay there in Shikamaru's lap, but he had to get up. He had to, or else he may not meet his team's sensei, he had thought ahead and made sure to place tow shadow clones near the back of the room and camouflaged them before he left of the meeting. He did it secretly so that Sasuke and Sakura wouldn't bother trying to dispell them, he wanted to make sure that he didn't miss his sensei's arrival since the man/women decided to be so late, he made sure that there was a little surprise awaiting the jonin when he finally decided to show himself. 

 

Naruto removed himself from Shikamaru's lap. Shikamaru noticed he felt a little disappointed when the blond sat back up, but pushed that feeling down, since when did he become so close to Naruto that he felt this way towards him? He was confused and didn't like it, the puzzle that he was trying to figure out was growing ever larger. Naruto sighed and got up to stretch his limbs, it's been about two hours since he's left the academy and his team, one of his clones was supposed to dispell once the sensei arrived. Since neither of them did, he was further displeased, a frown on his face. "Come on," he said extending out his hand to Shikamaru who looked at it a little dumbly.

 

"Uh? What?" Shikamaru asked as he looked at the blond's hand before looking at the blond's face, there was a frown there. Was that because of him?

 

"Take my hand, we're going back to the academy," Naruto stated as Shikamaru slowly stood up, still looking confused. Naruto smiled at that.

 

"Why do you need me to go with you? And I thought you guys meet your sensei already, it's already been about three hours," Shikamaru stated.

 

Naruto shook his head as he took Shikamaru's hand into his own, "no, we're still waiting for him or her to come pick us up."

 

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow to ask 'are you serious', "and you need to come with you because...?"

 

Naruto smirked this time, "because I'm going to show you something funny."

 

"Wha-" Before Shikamaru could say anything else, Naruto made the ram seal and they were surrounded by a swirl of leaves.

* * *

 

**Academy**

 

Back at the academy, Sasuke was leaning on the window ceil, hands laced together and brooding as usual. Sakura was pacing the length of the room, throwing occasional glances at the clock and then at the door, almost willing it to open and produce a jonin that would teach them shit. But every time she looked at the clock, time still went on and the door still remained closed. At one point she actually went up to the door to open it to see if they were somehow locked in the classroom all along. Not that she would not mind that, but she wanted to get home so that she could get some beauty sleep and then kick ass on missions tomorrow, while still looking pretty for her  _Sasuke-Kun._ Yet the hours passed and the doors stayed closed. "AAARRRRR! WHERE THE HELL IS HE!!" She yelled the rearranged room echoed her voice, making Sasuke wince at the noise that assaulted his eardrums.

 

Suddenly there was a sound of wind and rustling leaves at the back of the classroom. The two remaining students turned around to see Naruto and Shikamaru standing at the back of the classroom. Sasuke noticed that they were hand in hand and wondered when that happened. While Sakura only noticed that only noticed that Naruto wasn't in the classroom before while she hands Sasuke had to wait all this time for their sensei, without anything to do, while he went out and did god knows what. So she did the only thing that she knew how to do at times like these. She screamed at him.

 

"Naruto! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN! SASUKE-KUN AND I HAD TO WAIT NEARLY THREE WHOLE HOURS HERE, WHILE YOU WENT DOING-" Sakura ranted until Naruto stopped her.

 

"Oi, Sakura, shut up, you're hurting my ears," Naruto said as he pulled Shikamaru over to the back window and sat him down on the floor. Once Shikamaru was seated, Naruto rested his head back down in his lap with a smile, "that's better."

 

Shikamaru was trying to contain his blush, not only was Naruto laying his head down on his lap for the  _second_ time in under ten _minutes_. But both his teammates were watching him do it. "Eh, Naruto, what are you doing to Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

 

"I'm using his thick thighs as a pillow, what the fuck else could I be doing, Sakura?" Naruto asked, annoyed that the pinkette would ask such a dumb question.

 

"Why are you even here, Nara?" Sasuke asked.

 

Shikamaru looked from Sasuke to Sakura, then to Naruto, and finally, he noticed the rest of the room. Naruto's prank from earlier was still up and Shikamaru could not help but admire the articulation that must have went through the blond's head when he thought it. It was sort of like art, then he looked down at the panty painting, well it was sort of like art to a person with a slight pervy side to them. Returning his eyes back to Sasuke to answer his question, he only shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the blond with his head in his lap, finding him to look most peaceful as he lay there. Sasuke watched the two for a moment longer before turning himself back to the window to just staring out of it, no longer in the glaring or brooding mood. For some reason, he found himself feeling a little jealous of Shikamaru, but he stomped that feeling down to the deepest, darkest corner of his mind, never to be seen again. Maybe. Sakura just shrugged and decided to sit down and look out the window, she was more to the front of the room so she got a better view of outside because the room was designed to have the windows next to the stadium-style seating. This meant that the window next to Shikamaru and Naruto was actually over their heads, but they didn't seem to mind very much. Meanwhile, while his teammates were focused on Shikamaru, Naruto signaled his two hidden clones to quietly and quickly set up a prank/trap for the bastard jonin that was making them wait so long before showing himself. Naruto even brought his camera to take pictures, at first he was only going to use it to take pictures of his prank on the mountain, or of the prank in the classroom, but he ended up doing both, and now this one would make three in one day. Man, he loved being a prankster.

* * *

 

**Six minutes later**

 

Kakashi Hatake was not having a very good day. Well, that's not exactly true, he was having a great day actually. But then he walked into room 211B. The room where he used to go to get be taught how to be a ninja. A weapon for the village. It was in this very room where he met his number one enemy: Naruto Uzumaki. Right now, the Uzumaki boy was laughing his ass off and pointing at the colorful, bound jonin with silver, gravity-defying hair while another boy, a Nara he guessed, was doing next to nothing to hold in his own laughter. A pinkette was fairing better than the first to in hiding her giggling, but the sound still came out nonetheless. And then there was the Uchiha he was originally assigned to teach along with the rest of the team, he was the only one that seemed to be succeeding in not giving out a gut-wrenching laugh at the jonin's expense. Although there was laughter in his eyes as he smirked at the jonin's predicament. 

 

How did this all happen? 

 

_Rewind to six minutes and ten seconds ago_

 

_Everyone had just gone to their spots to sit and wait for the jonin that was going to be teaching team seven from now on. Everyone was waiting about four seconds until they started to hear a funny sound. It sounded something like a squeaky wheel that was being turned for two seconds before it stopped. They wondered what that sound was, but ignored it since it seemed that it wasn't coming towards the room they were in now. Another second later, two faint poof sounds could be heard a little way down the hall, "did you guys hear something?" Sakura asked turning towards the two doors that led to the room._

 

_"Yeah, it sounded like a wheel turning and then two poofs," Shikamaru said looking towards the door, but not bothering to get up and look for himself. He faintly registered that he was running his hands through Naruto's hair this time and stopped for a second before continuing. He was surprised at how soft Naruto's hair actually was, and when the light from the window hit it just right, it almost looked somewhat like gold._

 

_Sakura looked at the doors for about five seconds more before turning to look up at the clock. Another few seconds and they would have been waiting there for about a full three hours. 'What could be taking our sensei so long to get here?' She wondered to herself, not a second longer after thinking this thought did the sliding door to the room FINALLY  started to open to reveal a mask-wearing cyclops of a jonin._

 

_"Yo, sorry I-" the jonin was barely able to get out his next words when he sensed something heading his way. He jumped out of the way just in time for a giant log to come barreling out of thin air at the unnamed jonin, smashing itself into the wall next to the door and leaving behind a great whole in its wake. The jonin's eye was wide for a second before he turned it sternly towards his supposed future students. "Alright, who w-" he started, but was caught off guard when something hit him in the back, he barely had time to sense it coming, and the thing that hit him brought him straight up to the ceiling and was about to crush him. That is until he replaced himself with a small log from somewhere outside. The masked jonin watched as the second log, that was the same size as the first but with a dull point on both sides, created hole in the classroom ceiling. The jonin waited for a minute to see if anything else would happen when nothing did, he turned to face three stunned students and one not so stunned student, he put a hand on his hip, "am I to take it that you were the one that set this up, blonde?" He asked the Naruto, who looked at him with a small smile._

 

_"I have no idea what you mean, Mr. Cyclopes, sir, I was just sitting here taking a little nape when you came in making all this noise." Naruto stated innocently, "honestly, I thought jonin knew how to be quiet, I guess I was wrong." He said shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head at the jonin, "but either way, you should learn not to be late so often, especially when meeting people for the first time. I take first impressions very highly y'know."_

 

_The jonin was unimpressed, "a smart ass, huh? Well then, my first impression of you all is that-" The jonin made the mistake of touching one of the logs that attacked him earlier and it went up into smoke. Shocked by this, the others in the room watched as the unnamed jonin was surrounded by smoke, the sound of a struggle could be heard before a yelp of surprise and a confident cry of the jonin followed by the lifting of the smoke. When the smoke had cleared, they saw that the silver-haired man was now somehow hanging upside down from a rope that wasn't there before with three Naruto's surrounded him. Even though he realized that he was now tied up, the jonin still fought back the Naruto clones and avoided their taijutsu attacks with ease. It seemed he was getting annoyed by this, "when I get down from here, I am going to-"_

 

_"What? Read more porn in front of us or something?" One of the clones said while producing a round orange ball from his pouch._

 

_"What is he about to do? What is that thing, another smoke bomb?" Sakura asked as she watched the scene play out._

 

_The jonin heard what Sakura said and readied himself for the worst. The Naruto clone walked forward to the jonin and held out the ball towards him. The tied up man was skeptical of the ball but looked at it closely, it looked like a regular ball that a child would play with it and the way that the clone was holding it said it had quite a bit of bounce. The man didn't know what to think about the ball, it could be a trap, but without any clear sign that showed it being an exploding tag under henge or a smoke bomb, he reached out for the ball. The clone relinquished its hold on the ball and dispelled, while the other two clones untied him. The jonin was now truly confused by their actions as he watched these two dispell as well, he looked from the now empty spots where the clones once stood to the ball now in his hands, he squeezed it once cautiously, waited another minute for something to happen, before looking back at the new genin in the room, "well, now that that's over, what say we meet on the roof for an introduction, ne?" H said with an eye smile._

 

_Naruto grinned when he got all the memories from the three clones sorted out and stood up. He pulled Shikamaru up with him and then stood in front of him a little. "Sure thing, but first, maybe we should let you go home and get a change of clothes?"_

 

_The jonin and the two other kids in the room looked at Naruto as if he had grown a second head and started speaking another language. "Why would he do that? He only got tied up when he was playing with you stupid clones. Why would he need to go home and change his clothes when nothings wrong with the ones he has on now?" Sakura yelled at the blond, while Sasuke 'hn'd._

 

_The jonin, while the pinkette was talking, just stared at the ball in his hand for a second before it started to glow a bright orange that soon turned to white. His one eye widened and he tried the throw the wall towards the window or somewhere far away from him, but he soon found out that the ball was stuck to the palm of his hands. "Everyone take cover!" He yelled only to be covered by a cloud of orange smoke afterward, the others in the room tried to look for cover like the jonin told them, but the room was upside down and they could not walk up walls just yet. So they were forced to back up to the walls as far as they could to avoid getting hit by whatever attack that ball had was supposed to give the jonin. But when the smoke cleared, they no longer feared the attack, they only wanted to laugh at it, because as soon as the smoke lifted, the jonin was now a rainbow of neon coloring and sparkly glitter._ _The silver gravity-defying hair was now a bright neon pink, the brightest shade you could think of, with a golden crown on top of his head. There was bright red and orange where navy blue clothing once stood. Bright purple, yellow, and blue neon colors swirled together around the same place he green jonin vest once stood. Large, swirly eyeglasses over the place where his eyes would be. And then to top it all off, there was rainbow tutu around the jonin's waist, a matching star-shaped wand, and his exposed skin was now the color of Cheetos, all in all, this did not look like a jonin any long, instead, it looked to be the result of a Unicorns bad decisions during a drunken night out on the town with friends. When the kids saw this, laughing ensued from that time, until now._

 

**Flashback end**

 

 

The kids were still laughing at the jonin's new state of dress and he was none too pleased by it. He shushinned up to the roof without another word to them as they laughed. After another minute passed them by, they noticed that Sasuke was already on his way up to the roof. Sakura calmed her laughing enough to follow him but was still giggling as she went. That left Shikamaru and Naruto along in the room, once Shikamaru had finally calmed down, he took in a deep breath and wiped away the tear that started to form in his eye because of how hard he was laughing. Naruto was calmer now too, and looked to Shikamaru, "hey, you want to go out to eat after this?" He asked.

 

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, "sure, after all that, I am kind of hungry."

 

"Great, it's a date!" Naruto cheered as he grabbed shocked Shikamaru's hand and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. 

* * *

**Rooftop**

 

Shikamaru was still a little surprised that Naruto called their little dinner get together a date, but brushed it off as being a figure of speech when he noticed that they were on the roof now.  _"Maybe I should how to do that, it would make getting to my favorite could watching spots much quicker and less troublesome. I probably could just leave the house without my mom asking me a bunch of troublesome question about where I'm going and stuff. I'll ask him later though."_ He thought as he let Naruto pull him over to where the colorful jonin was trying to wash off some of the neon paint and glitter from his clothes, he had already taken off the crown, tutu, and glasses, all three were thrown off to the far corner of the roof, along with the wand. However, it seemed that the colors that were gifted to him earlier were not coming off with just plain water.  _"I wouldn't want to be him right about now, I think he has to report to the Hokage after this with the rest of the jonins."_

 

"Oi, sensei, we're all here," Naruto said when the last two team members of team seven arrived on the roof to see the jonin still struggling to de-colorfy himself. 

 

The jonin before them grunted and faced the his three (maybe) students, and an extra. "Why are you here? The teams are made up of three genins, not four," he said in a lazy, but still slightly frustrated voice.

 

Shikamaru sighed, "I was just walking by when I saw Naruto and he asked me to come here He said he wanted to show me something funny," he smirked at the jonin. "Clearly I was right to come after all."

 

The jonin nearly growled, but regained his self-control and took on a laid-back persona, "whatever, I want you all to tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams. We'll start with you, pinky," he said pointing to Sakura.

 

"HEY, MY NAME IS NOT PINKY!!" She screeched at the man, then pointed a finger at him, "and you shouldn't be talking _Rainbow sensei!"_

 

At her new title for the jonin, everyone, even Sasuke, could not contain their laughter any longer and started laughing for a full five minutes before the jonin had enough. "ENOUGH!" He yelled, his killing intent was on the rise, but he rained it in before continuing. "Fine, I'll go first, "my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes, you don't get to know. My hobbies, I have many, and my dream, is none of your business, Now go,  _Pinky."_ Sakura huffed indignantly before starting her introduction. Which was the same as canon. "Next, the Emo, go," Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the colorful man before starting his introduction. Which was also canon. "Last but not least," he glared at Naruto."

 

Naruto smiled innocently at the man as he spoke, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki..." he said. 

.

.

.

.

.

"And..." The jonin made a motion with his hands for the blond to continue talking.

 

Naruto tilted his head to the side, "and what?"

 

Kakashi's eye twitched, "and, what are your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams. Be a team player, let us know more about you."

 

Naruto pouted, "but you didn't tell us anything other than your name, so why should I not do the same?" He folded his arms childishly and turned his head away from the jonin. 

 

Sakura went to hit the blond, "NARUTO-BAKA, YOU SHOW KAKASHI SENSEI SOME RESPECT!" She was just inches from punching the blond in the head like she usually does, but then he caught her hand. 

 

"Respect? What about you? And I thought he was  _Rainbow_ sensei now," Naruto said with a raised eyebrow at the girl. Sakura spluttered before blushing, knowing that he was right, but didn't want to admit it. She sat back down pouting. "That's what I thought," he turned back to Kakashi, "is there anything else,  _Rainbow sensei?"_

 

Kakashi's eye twitched again before giving up on the blond, "whatever, meet me at training ground seven at six-no, actually, make that five o'clock tomorrow morning." He said with an eye smile, "make sure not to eat breakfast, or else you'll puke, ja ne," he went up into a poof of white smoke. Naruto smirked because the things that the jonin had taken off had also disappeared with him.

 

Naruto got up and stretched his arms and legs, 'well, now that that's over, let's get going on our date!" He said proudly.

 

Sakura turned and glared at Naruto, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I AM NOT GOING OUT ON A DATE WITH YOU, BAKA!!" She yelled at the blond.

 

Naruto sent chakra to his ears to heal them as he turned another, even sharper glare at the pink haired girl. "I wasn't talking to you, Haruno!" He said heatedly before turning to Shikamaru, "come on Shika-chan, let go, I know a great place to eat, my treat."

 

Shikamaru was blushing a bright red as Naruto pulled him to his feet, "wait, you wear actually serious about this being a date?!" He felt his voice crack as he said that.

 

"Of course, I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't want it to be like that," Naruto said as they started walking to the door that led back into the school building.

 

"Uhm, okay," Shikamaru following behind him, trying to hide his blush. He was getting hungry right about now since he had sort of slept through his alarm clock that morning and his mother had to wake him up. She had rushed him to the show as quickly as she could, and then out the door, without breakfast, so he wouldn't be late for team placement. Then his jonin sensei had arrived before he could settle down for something to eat, plus he was distracted by Naruto running his hands through his hair. There just didn't seem to be enough time to eat before, so he was reasonably hungry right about now. 

 

Sakura watched the two boys leave, she was dumbfounded, "I didn't know that Naruto liked boys. But why did he ask me out all those times before, I wonder?" She spoke to herself softly, for once. She remembered that she was, once again, alone with her crush, she turned to him, "oh, Sasuke-Kun you must be hungry too, would...." She trailed off when she saw that her crush was no longer on the roof with here. Pouting sadly at her loss, she dragged herself home to cry into her pillow before doing her daily praise in front of her Sasuke shrine. One of the requirements the fan club came up with to keep its members faithful to their cause.

* * *

 

**Hokage tower**

 

 

"Alright, you all meet your teams today, report," the Sandime said to the jonin lined up in front of him.

 

"Team one, fail!" Said one jonin, teams two through six also failed.

 

"Team eight, pass," Kurani Yuhi, jonin for said team stated happily,

 

"Team ten, pass," Asuma Sarutobi, jonin for said team and the last living son of the Sandime said.

 

"Good, good, now lets all wait for Kakashi's report and then you may all leave," Hiruzen said with a glint in his eye. The other jonin didn't seem to understand the glint, but whatever it was, it was meant for Kakashi and they didn't want to know what it meant if it was for him. So they all waited around the Hokage's office for good two hours before a poof was heard in the room. Some of the jonin noticed when Hiruzen had picked out some sunglasses from his draw sometime earlier and put them when the sound was heard. They didn't know why he did that, but as soon as they turned to face the sound that signaled that someone had arrived, they wished that they also had on some sunglasses as well. Why? Because as soon as the smoke cleared, there stood a  _bright_ Kakashi in  _glowing neon colors_. Did I mention that the paint and glitter used in Naruto's prank glowed whenever the victim of the paint tries to wash it off with water? Oops, my bad. But ys, Kakashi was now as bright as the very sun with all his attempts to wash off the paint, the glowing only really occurred when he was indoors, and the glowing intensifies when the lights are dimmer than the ones outside, so that was why the Hokage had to wear sunglasses. Naruto had told him of the prank he was going to pull on the jonin ahead of time if he was not there by the time the blond gets back to the classroom. He was also the one that gave the Hokage the sunglasses so that he could look at, and if he wished, record Kakashi's appearance for later use, as the man gave his report to the kage.

 

"So Kakashi, how was your team? I see they left you with a  _colorful_ impression," the aged kage said coolly as some of the jonin started snickering in the background. Asuma and Kurani were trying their best not to crack a smile at the kage's words or Kakashi's new look but ended up with shaky grins. They wanted to laugh so bad but didn't want Kakashi coming after them with his Sharingan. 

 

Kakashi stared at his kage's smirking face blankly, "I'm testing them tomorrow," then he went up in smoke. Unable to stand to be in the office any more than he had to, and left so that he could find a way to get rid of the bright colors. Unknown to Kakashi, the colorful paint would fade by themselves by the next morning. 

 

 


	5. If it isn't a date, it's wedding planning!

Naruto Uzumaki was not well known in his village, yes everyone thought that they knew him. They called him a troublemaker, an idiot, a demon, or whatever else they could think of along those lines. But the truth of the matter was, Naruto Uzumaki was smart, he was so smart that he figured out everything that the old man Hokage was trying to keep from him, but since the villagers would hate to have a smart "demon" living among them, he played dumb. Yes, Naruto was a really smart guy, he was sneaky too...however, there was also something that no one knew about Naruto and that was that he was somewhat of a pervert. Yes, I know, it's hard to believe, or maybe not so hard since he made the Sexy Jutsu and all. Still, he was a public pervert like the toad sage, Jiraiya, no. That didn't mean he was a closet pervert either, like Ebisu. The truth of the matter was, with all of Naruto's skills, he was able to be a secret pervert, without being a closet one. And with all those skills of his, Naruto was contemplating writing his own book, sort of like Jiraiya and his Icha Icha Paradise, but with a lot more plot. He could already imagine it, if people didn't pick up his book for the hot action, then it would most definitely be for the plot within it. Naruto started to drool as he thought about all the material he would need to get his hands on for these books and how he-

 

"Uh, Naruto? Are you okay, you're been blushing and staring off into space ever since we got our menus." This person with worry lacing his voice was none other than Shikamaru Nara, one of his soon to be 'wives' of the up and coming Uzumaki clan. 

 

 _"I can't wait to see him in some lacy panties and on his knees while he-"_ Naruto's thoughts were cut off when Shikamaru called out his name again. The unsuspecting Nara heir had chills running up and down his spine when he saw Naruto's eyes turn on him. He was really starting to think that this 'date' thing was some way for the blond to pull some elaborate prank on him with him knowing it. Naruto shook himself from his perverted thoughts, "sorry about that Shika-chan, but I was just thinking," he said with a reassuring smile.

 

Shikamaru eyed the blond warily, "yeah, sure, whatever..." he said as he returned to his menu. This wasn't Ichiraku's, which surprised the Nara since he knew how much the blond loved their ramen, but instead, they were here. Shikamaru had been expecting to go to Ichiraku's, he almost wanted to actually go because it was less troublesome and he knew everything on the menu there already, but no, Naruto somehow got them both into one of the fanciest restaurants in all of Konoha proper: The Golden Bell (irony). "Um, so Naruto..." Shikamaru started as he looked up from his menu, he had been wondering about the blond all day now and he was dying to ask him this question. "Why did you suddenly change today?" He asked, "not that I mind or anything, today of all days might of be a good time to do it, but I was just wondering," he put down his menu to give the other his full attention, he didn't want to be rude and question Naruto as if he had done something wrong. He was just curious is all

 

"Oh, you want to know about my change from bright to dark clothes?" Naruto asked coolly, he shrugged, "okay, only if you answer me a question as well. You know, an answer for an answer, sound good?"

 

Shikamaru shrugged his own shoulders, "sure."

 

Naruto smirked, "well, let us see, how do I say this?..." He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers, "okay, so the simplest way that I could think to say this, is that, because of some things that I can't control, my clothes make me a target."

 

Shikamaru looked at the blond, puzzled by his answer, "what's that supposed to mean?" 

 

"Ah, ah, ah, an answer for an answer, remember?" Naruto reminded him.

 

"Oh, right, fine, what do you want to know?" Shikamaru asked as he leaned on the table, both arms folded in front of him to support him. 

 

Naruto thought for a moment, "tell me, how do you feel about...home cooked meals?"

 

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the question, "their alright, I guess. Why?"

 

Naruto smirked, "no reason."

 

"Then why ask?" Shikamaru asked, confused by the blond's laid-back behavior, it was miles from the way he used to act while they were in school.

 

"An answer for an answer, I didn't say that they had to make sense," Naruto said with a raised eyebrow, "it's my turn again, by the way." Shikamaru pouted, he wasn't sure he liked this game very much, it was confusing and he wasn't sure of all the rules, then he remembered that they didn't talk about rules. He sighed and stayed silent, "what's your favorite food?"

 

Shikamaru blinked, "why?" Naruto leaned back in his chair and put down his mean, not saying a word, and still had his smirk on his face. It wasn't like the smirk that Sasuke would always wear when he beat someone, it was more like a knowing smirk as if Naruto knew something about him that he hadn't figured out yet. Seeing as how he wasn't going to get a reply until he answered, he thought about the question for a little while, did he even have a favorite food? "I guess I like Dongo's and ice cream, maybe hot chocolate on the weekends."

 

Naruto chuckled, "does Shika-chan have a bit of a sweet tooth?" 

 

Shikamaru blushed slightly and turned his head away from the blond, he was thankful that they were seated in the back of the establishment. He was also happy that the restaurant had dim lighting in some areas with mostly candles to light the surrounding of the table, while other areas were well light and looked to be out in the open. They were seated in one of the dim areas with a scented candle at the center of the table, it makes him feel uneasy because of how romantic it felt, and how odd it was that Naruto, of all people, would take _him_  here. Now he was asking him questions that, even though aren't strictly personal, felt somewhat invasive. Naruto chuckled at Shikamaru's blush, he placed an elbow on the table and leaned his head in his palm, "you know, you look pretty cute when you blush like that," said the blond with a somewhat dreamy look in his eyes.

 

Shikamaru blushed a little brighter while also trying to keep a straight face, by no longer looking at the blond sitting across from him. "T-thanks," he stuttered out, cursing himself for stuttering, but then he shook his head, "hey, stop calling me cute, I'm a guy, remember? And what's the deal with bringing me here or all places, with this stupid candles and stuff? This isn't a real date you know, we're only getting dinner together, or at least we were supposed to be." He said as he leaned back him his chair with his arms folded in front of his chest, his face still slightly red, he glared at the blond, "you've been acting weird all day. I want to know why, right now, or else I'm leaving."

 

Naruto pouted a little, he didn't like to see when his possible love interest was unhappy. He was being serious as well, Shikamaru really did look cute when he frowned, sort of like a doe or maybe even a fawn. Naruto sighed and tried to put on a serious face if only he could make his future wife happy. "Sorry Shika-chan, it's just that, I think you're cute and I wanted to tell you that I thought of you as that for a while now, is that so wrong?"

 

"Yes!" Shikamaru said without hesitation, Naruto pouted and looked down, giving the impression of a kicked puppy. Shikamaru felt instantly bad about making the blond look so sad, and looked away from him, "I mean, no...maybe, it's just that, well....troublesome," he said as he tried to think of what to say next. He sighed again, "listen, I-I would like this more i-if I wasn't...if I wasn't-"

 

"If you were 't a clan heir?" Naruto asked looking up at him without lifting his head that much, just enough to see him, "or is it because we're both boys?" It seemed that Naruto had hit the nail right on the head because Shikamaru's face turned redder than Hinata's face whenever she worked up the courage to try and talk to Naruto. It was an impressive color really, dark read that was very close to purple, but not quite. Naruto blinked his eyes as if to focus them as he raised his head fully to look at Shikamaru, "are you still in the closet?" He asked, well, more like stated, because ever since he could remember, Naruto had the best gay-dar there ever was, it was how he picked on Sasuke's hidden secret and Kiba's reason for being so loud and rash. She was a no-brainer because if you knew the Abarame clan, then you knew that most, if not all, members of the bug clan played both fields. Yet, girls like Hinata always seemed to slip under his detection because they were so feminine, sometimes he couldn't tell unless he got to know them well enough that he could spot some signs. Results may vary. Anyway, Naruto put both his hands on the table and waited for Shikamaru to respond, even though he had already guessed the answer he would get, and he was right.

 

"W-w-what! N-no, I-I'm not in-" Shikamaru started, but he makes a mistake in looking Naruto in his eyes and realized that his usual lie was not going to work. His eyes watered a little as he turned them to stare down at his lap, "...how did you know?"

 

Naruto offered the clan heir a sympathetic smile, "because I've known you since I started at the academy. You thought that no one was looking, and your eye would wonder, pretending that you were daydreaming whenever you got caught. After a while, everyone thought that you were just daydreaming and would leave you along, but I could see it."

 

"....Are you going to tell anyone," Shikamaru frowned at his own question, he knew that he could rely on Naruto not to tell anyone. He didn't even know why he asked, the words just slipped out of his mouth, Naruto was a good friend and would never tell a secret that wasn't his to tell. 

 

Meanwhile, while Shikamaru was thinking to himself, Naruto got up from his seat and walked over to stand next to Shikamaru. In one fluent motion he lifted the Nara's head so that he was looking at him, he moved his face closer to the other boy until their lips were only inches away. Shikamaru looked into those deep ocean blues and felt himself get lost at sea, his heart skip a beat when he heard Naruto's voice in his ear. "Out of all the things that I could do to you right here and now, or even in the future....hurting you is not one of them," Naruto said in a smooth, gentle voice that felt like the sweetest chocolate he's ever tasted. Shikamaru's dark brown eyes stared into Naruto's deep blue ones, he realized how close he was to the blond and was frozen, a small movement, a simple flinch. Some small motion to move could have brought their lips crashing together in an unforgettable kiss of the ages. They stayed like that for what felt like ages, Shikamaru staring into Naruto's eyes, while he stared right back. The air between them felt warm to Shikamaru as he tired, and failed, to get his heart to stop racing at the thought of the blond's lips on his, they were so close. So close that Shikamaru could feel Naruto's calm, even breath mixing with his own, his warm hands under his chin, just a little closer and...

 

"Um, excuse me, but a-are you two ready to order now?" Came a voice that plowed through the mood, taking it away as if it was never there in the first place. 

 

Naruto turned to the source of the voice to find the waiter standing there with a notepad and pen in hand. He smiled his usual fox-like smiles at him, stepping away from a dismayed and bright red Shikamaru. "Yes, I'll take a steak rare with a side of breadsticks and some Jin," he stated happily before gesturing to Shikamaru, "and my date will take some of your sweet noodles with an of chocolate sauce. Hm, what would you like to drink, Shika-chan?" He asked turning to the said boy.

 

 

Shikamaru turned away from Naruto's bright smile, still embarrassed with his former thoughts of kissing the blond's lips. "I'll just take some green tea, thanks," he said in a small voice that the waiter didn't quite hear, but Naruto did and told him. 

 

Once their orders were written down and confirmed, the waiter left the two along once more, Naruto sat down in his seat again and smiled at his date. "you're pretty hot when you're shy," the blond said after a few minutes of silence went by without either of them saying a word.

 

Shikamaru's head hit the table, not knowing how much more of the blond he could take. His face was burning red and he was started to feel a little uncomfortable in his pants for whatever reason. "Stop saying things like that," he mumbled just loud enough for the blond to hear.

 

Naruto was enjoying this new side of Shikamaru very much, it was kind of turning him on a little. "Stop saying things like what? How cute you are?" He asked in a teasing voice. The tablecloth on their table was a blood red, currently, Shikamaru's face was doing a good job of blending with it. Naruto could see this and chuckled, "alright, alright, I'll stop making fun, but you know..." he paused with a smirk coming back onto his face, "I bet you would taste just like strawberries if we did kiss."

 

Shikamaru's head shot up to look at the blond, it took him a moment to realize that the other boy was not making a joke and was being completely serious. Now that he saw that Naruto wasn't making a joke, his brain did the most logical thing it could think of at that moment with all the blood surrounding it. He fainted. Naruto moved like a flash and caught Shikamaru before he could hit the ground, holding him bridal style, he placed the unconscious Nara back in his seat and chuckled at him, "adorable." He had already decided that their food was to be takeaway, so once the waiter came back, he told him that they could not stay there any longer, now that Shikamaru was passed out. Naruto paid for the food while the waiter left to bring back some takeaway bags for the food before he created a clone to carry the food while he carried Shikamaru. He was all too tempted to take Shikamaru home and dress him up in one of his oversized nightshirts but decided against it since he was sure that after the meeting at the Hokage tower today, Shikaku may need his son back. Naruto didn't know if the Nara head would take it nicely if Naruto was to take away his only son's innocence before their pending wedding night, but it was better to play it safe than to try and escape the jonin commander wrath later. Even though he really wanted to see Shikamaru wearing one of his night's shirts...and nothing else...

 

"Uhm, boss, you're nose is bleeding," said the clone that was holding the food and walking along with the original.

 

Naruto wiped his bloody nose with the back of his long-sleeved shirt before turning his attention to Shikamaru. "Right, let's get to the Nara compound before something happens, it's my duty to make sure that any future bride is not harmed on the way home," he said nobly as he picked up Shikamaru.

 

The sweatdropped, "you mean before you lose control and try to rape him, boss?" 

 

Naruto blushed, "shut up and do your job, I didn't call you out here to judge me!" He yelled at the clone as they left the restaurant. 

 

"Really and here I thought you just wanted to live one of your fantasies where you-" the clone was cut off.

 

"I said shut up, come on we're wasting time, let's go," Naruto said as he rushed out of the establishment with Shikamaru in his arms.

 

The clone raised an eyebrow at his master's retreating back, "seems like he forgot that he could have used shushin to leave. It would have been much faster," he sighed and followed his master out of the restaurant. 

* * *

**Nara compound**

 

Shikaku was pacing the floors of his office as he thought of a way for him to tell his wife the news, he hasn't even so much as mentioned this to her yet. Thankfully, the other clan heads and their spouses haven't said anything about this either. Hopefully, the civilian council hadn't gotten the news to Yoshino as of yet and he could maybe buy himself time if not, but then he remembered that today would be one of the days that his wife goes to the marketplace to shop for everything the house would need. Every man worth their salt, ninja or not, knows that this place is where all information in the village is shared throughout and it would be impossible not to find a juicy rumor or two floating around there. Which is why Shikaku was worried, he was expecting his wife home around five or six this evening, but now it was almost ten 0'clock at night and not only was his wife not at home, but his son hasn't returned either. Even though today was team placement, he  _knew_ that Asuma was his son's sensei, and he  _knew_ that his son's team had already gone their separate ways for the day, so why isn't his son back yet? Okay, so he was probably being a little paranoid right about not, but he felt as if, since he found out just recently, yesterday night, that he would most likely be giving away his son to the village jinturiki, he felt that he should break the news to him. He wished that he could have gotten all of this over and done with this morning before either his wife and son left the house this morning, but Shikamaru had to be the one to surprise him this morning by actually waking up  _early_ for once! "Why Kami, why? Why did he choose today to wake up so early? I could have given him a simple heads up before he left and then I would only have his troublesome mother to deal with," Shikaku muttered to himself.

 

"Troublesome am I?" Came the voice of Yoshino Nara, standing in the doorway of his office. 

 

Shikaku had been so focused on thinking up a way to explain to his wife about the decision that he, or rather, the elders had made for him after the council meeting the day before. A jonin commander and he let his chunin level wife sneak up on him,  _"must have been more worried than I thought if she was able to sneak up on me like that."_ He thought disparagingly, he chuckled nervously, he really didn't want to get another frying pan to the head today. when he and Yoshino had gotten married, however, forced it was, they had an agreement to one frying pan to the head a day, unless it was under special circumstances, then it would be two. This make count as one of those circumstances, he sighed, seeing no other way around it, he came out and spoke, "listen, Yoshino, I need to tell you something," he said seriously.

 

Yoshino let her anger about being called troublesome by her husband go, when Shikaku got serious, it was time to listen. It was always important news, "what's the matter, Shikaku?" She asked, a little concerned. 

 

"Do you remember what I told you about the Uzumaki kid being nominated for a CRA during the last council meeting?" Shikaku asked Yoshino nodded her head with a slight disdain on her face, he knew that she didn't like Naruto's...guest very well. This only made what he had to say next that much harder, he took in a deep breath, "well, today, the council and I were able t find out who it was that would be joining him in the CRA...Uhm, it seems that due to a once thought forgotten or lost bloodline, he is able to take males as his partners." He braced himself for what he knew would come next, taking in another breath in and letting it out slowly, he slowly eased himself away from the enraged woman, using his desk as a shield that would hide him from whatever Yoshino might manage to get her hands on. 

 

Yoshino, for her part, was processing this somewhat well. She was happy that the boy will have something to occupy his time other than playing pranks on the rest of the village's populace. However, with the information of the demon vessel being able, and allowed, to reproduce with children of his generation, she wasn't sure she liked the idea very much. Yet, what really pushed her over the edge was when Shikaku said that boy could take  _males_ as his partners, that was when she lost it. "WHAAAT!" She yelled at the cowering jonin commander hiding behind the desk in the office, if Naruto was able to take others of his age group, this could mean that the children in his class would be affected the most by his choice. Whoever his choice was would most likely be someone that he knows. Suddenly a thought struck that made her angrier, she turned her heated eyes on the man she married. She walked over to the man's hiding place, each step she took was calculated and measured, thoughtful, once she was finally in front of the desk, she slammed both hands down on the top, making Shikaku shiver behind it a little, he knew that the beating he was likely to get from this news alone would not trump that of the one that he was more likely to get when he told her the rest of the information and the elders decision. Sure the elders were the ones to come up with it and pushed for it, knowing full well that their word was pretty much law that a clan head had to uphold. Yet the person that would get the beating was  _him,_ and not the elders, even though  _they_ were the ones who pushed for it. 

 

"Shikaku..." Yoshino's voice called, low and dangerous. "You wouldn't have maybe, by any small chance, nominate  _OUR SON_ for this little perversion, right?"

 

Shikaku made sure to push himself under his desk further, making sure that he was somewhat protected from the woman before answering. "Define 'nominate our son', do you mean if I may have slipped his name onto the list of running candidates." Shikaku asked uncertainly, "or do you mean if I might have, maybe, offered his hand to the future clan head himself?" He finally asked and prepared for hell to rain down on him.

 

Yoshino growled, actually growled after hearing the second question. "Why you BASTARD!!" She yelled out her rage and, surprisingly for a woman her size, lifted up the desk her husband was using as a protective shield and raised high up into the air above both of their heads. 

 

Shikaku looked back behind him when he felt his hiding place leave him, for a few seconds, he sore he could have seen fire bellowing out and rising up behind his wife. He was sure that the heat of those flames alone would no doubt scorch his skin if he got too close or let his guard down for a second. He looking up at the woman who was having no problem holding the desk above her head. "Now, now, Yoshino-chan, it's alright," Shikaku tried as he slowly got up from his crouching position. Slowly moving as if the wrong move at any second would cause a train reaction to happen that would end with him crushed under his own desk, "this isn't such a bad thing, is it?" He asked nervously.

 

"Oh? And pray tell, what is so good about this? And I better like you answer, or else..." Yoshino spat angrily at her scared husband. 

 

"W-w-well didn't you always say that you wanted grand-children? Well, he-here's your chance...?" 

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TO BE CONTINUED...


	6. Wave 1

The next morning Naruto woke up with a headache, why? Well after arriving at the Nara compound with the still unconscious Shikamaru in his arms, Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother, decided to give him a fight that he may never forget. Upon seeing the state of her son, Yoshino had declared that Naruto had 'killer' her son with his 'demon germs' and proceded to kick his ass. Or at the very, least try to. Yoshino, while she had been active, had been of chunin level, but after fighting Naruto, she soon figured out that he was anything but and was merely holding back his true strength when she found out that fact, she was enraged and doubled her efforts to hurt the blond even more. She didn't succeed though and the only injury that Naruto left with, was a small scratch on his cheek that healed within seconds of receiving it, so it didn't really count all that much in the end anyway. Naruto didn't like the way that he was treated by the Nara woman and decided, as revenge, she would tie her up and make her watch as she left the compound with her son, who had woken up sometime during their little battle. Shikamaru was embarrassed at the fact that Naruto, in front of both his parents, had lifted him up bridal style and carried him  _all the way_  back to the blonde's apartment. Shikamaru had managed to stay awake during the whole walk, keeping himself busy by complaining to the blond on why it was that he had to be carried like some fragile princess or something. Although, he would never admit that he sort of, kind of liked being in the blonde's arms. Naruto shared the sentiment because while he was carrying Shikamaru and ignoring his complaints about being carried back to his apartment, Naruto could not help the perverted thoughts that his brain kept coming up with. With Shikamaru in his arms, Naruto was able to get a close and personal look at his blushing soon-to-be bride, images of wedding dresses and silk nightshirts filled his mind to the brim. However, once they reached Naruto's apartment, Shikamaru made it clear that, even though it was too troublesome to walk all the way back home at that hour, he would not sleep in the same bed as the blond. No, Naruto did not pout childishly and almost whine about his future bride not wanting to sleep in the same bed as him, seeing as how Shikamaru didn't know of his status as one of his future brides.

 

So, with a sad frown on his face, Naruto begrudgingly agreed to take the couch while Shikamaru too his bed and they both went to sleep that night. Shikamaru had made sure that Naruto was not able to get into the room, even though it belonged to the blond anyway, and do anything...weird to him while he slept. Shikamaru could not shake the feeling that plagued him almost throughout their dinner date-as friends! They were having dinner with friends, nothing more, nothing less, that's all. Yep, that's it, they were just friends, nothing weird about having dinner with friends, right? He did it with Chouji every other night, so why should Naruto be much different. It was at this point that Shikamaru tried, and failed, to put the thoughts of the blond's lips just inches away from his own just an hour and a half before, out of his mind. Shikamaru then turned to the door leading to the rest of the house and checked the locks, making sure they worked, before removing his pants and jacket with his clan symbol on it. Taking another second of thought, Shikamaru threw off his shirt and underwear as well before getting underneath the sheets, he felt more comfortable sleeping in the nude than in just a shirt, which was how he slept when he was spending the night at Chouji's house. Meanwhile, out on the couch, Shikamaru did not know that Naruto had secret security cameras set up all over the house, including the bedroom and bathroom, he wanted to make sure he covered all points of entry and exit to his humble little home just in case of villagers. Shikamaru also didn't know that those security cameras could also take pictures...For evidence purposes of course, or that Naruto had a small laptop that he watched the  _live_ feed of the whole house that recorded twenty-four hours of the day. Shikamaru didn't know this, then again, it might be better if he didn't know...for now. Naruto was most likely going to love checking the footage of his room after Kakashi's test tomorrow, that's for sure.

 

The two fell asleep father peacefully that night, surprisingly, without Shikamaru finding out about the news that would change his wished for future. But after the fight that took place between Naruto and Yoshino not too long ago, then the walk back to the apartment, they were a little distracted at the time. Oh well, there was always tomorrow. 

 

Now it was the next day and Naruto was looking for something to ease a headache he was suffering from the night before. It appears that Yoshino's right hook hit him harder than he first thought and his head was pounding now because of it. As a Wiseman once said, how troublesome. Once he found the pain relief he was looking for, he took it and made some clones to make him something to eat while he went into the shower when he turned off the shower and realized that he forgot his towel in his room, he left the bathroom. Naked and wet. Only to discover that his bedroom door was locked from the inside...let it be known that Naruto's brain when suffering from a headache early in the morning, was not fully awake until after breakfast. Yet, he was able enough to find his failsafe on the door that would unlock it from the outside, even if someone had locked it from within, entering his once locked room, he looked around for his towel in its usual corner. Once he found it, he dried off slowly, Yoshino's punch really hit him hard internally if not externally, he was lucky that he had the Kyuubi sealed within him or else he might have had a concussion for a couple of days.  _"Damn that woman, I'm going to have to plan something to get her back for this headache that she gave me, hm, what should I do though? Gule? Paint? Sunk in the bathroom?...Nah, wait a minute, if I remember right, I should still have a box of neon hair dye left, I was going to use it on the cyclopes today, but maybe I could use it for her instead."_ A small smile spread across his face as his planning played out,  _"yeah, and if I have anything left over, I could just use the rest on that one-eyed pervert."_

 

 **"My, my kit, it's already ten in the afternoon and you're just getting up to make plans. I must say that I'm impressed,"**  came a deep voice from the back of his mind.

 

 _"Ohio, Kurama, I supposed that you saw what happened last night, no?"_ Naruto asked the fox.

 

Kurama chuckled,  **"saw it and laughed my ass off, kit, that women's a spitfire. She's not too bad looking, though she's not my type, but that Shikaku fellow, he seems interesting enough."** Kurama chuckled,  **"speaking of interesting, I see that you've brought home one of your mates last night."** He frowned when he didn't pick up Naruto's mark on the sleeping boy,  **"why haven't you matted with him yet?"** He asked a little upset with his container.

 

Naruto paused in his towel drying to remember the events of that night when he remembered who he brought back home with him last night, he slowly turned his head towards the slowly waking boy. "AAAHHH! SHIKAMARU WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED!" Naruto yelled in surprise when he noticed the sleeping boy starting to sit up in his bed.

 

Shikamaru grumbled about noisy people early in the morning, until he realized the one being noisy was Naruto. For a second, he wondered why it was that he was in Naruto's bed and not his, but then he remembered the night before, his eyes snapped open to take in the blond's appearance before him. Not noticing until it was too late, that said person was now naked because he had dropped his towel when he screamed earlier. "Naruto! W-w-why are you naked?" Shikamaru asked as he pointed at the blond, too shocked by what he was seeing to look away, his face turning red as he stared.

 

"Huh?" Naruto looked down at his body, he didn't really feel much shame to walk around his apartment butt naked, it was his apartment after all. However, Naruto also noticed something about Shikamaru, he looked back at the boy and smirked, "the better question is, why are you naked in my bed?" Shikamaru seemed to have finally realized that the covers he had on him were now pooling around his waist and he was, in fact, just as naked as Naruto now. 

 

Shikamaru pulled the covers up to his chest in an attempt to get some coverage for his bare body, "w-we-well, um, I-I-I was just um..." He tried to think of an excuse, but all his brain was doing for him was drawing blanks and returning to the image of Naruto's...lower regions. He forced his eyes to look anywhere but that area and his eyes meet Naruto knowing smirk, making his face go even redder than they already were. He looked down in his lap, quite ashamed for looking at another boy's privet parts, yet, he didn't feel disgusted by the sight. What did that say about him though? He was raised with the idea to marry a woman when he got older and have two kids, a girl first, then a boy and then become an average ninja before dying in his sleep before his wife. Did these new feelings that he was suddenly having for the blond a precursor for what was to come? Could he no longer live the life that he was expecting now? 

 

Naruto could see the confusion ragging behind the embarrassed boy's eyes as they continued to look down at his covered lap. He felt a little bad that Shikamaru was feeling so confused, maybe he should talk to him a little, sort everything out before things become complicated. "Hay, Shika, it's okay, I get it, you don't need to know everything right now because we're all still trying to figure out everything that's going to happen," he soothed the boy as he sat down on his bed next to him. He put a hand around Shikamaru's shoulders and pulled him into a hug, Shikamaru dropped the sheet and accepted the hug, he didn't know by at the time, but deep down inside, he felt like these were the words that he needed to hear. 

 

After a while of hugging, there was the sound of the front door breaking down and someone rushing inside of his apartment. Naruto did not have enough time to react to the situation before a pink blur rushed into the room, followed by someone else at a much slower pace. Both blurs froze when they ented Naruto's room just into to see him pulling away from Shikamaru, both the blond and raven on the bed was confused as to what was going on until their minds registered Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno staring wide-eyed at them. Shikamaru came out of his daze first, red face, "i-its not w-what you t-think!" Was all Shikamaru's brain was able to come up with before a purpled blur ran into the room, an enraged, and unladylike scream being heard as she entered the apartment.

 

"SHIKAMARU, WHERE THE HELL IS YOUR LAZY ASS? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO MEET US AT THE TRAINING GROUND TWO HOURS AGO, YOU ASSHOLE!!" Shikamaru paled when heard the voice of Ino Yamanaka as she walked/ran into the room when she saw people gathered around one of the doors. She pushed passed the two, not even looking to see who it was that was blocking the door, and forced her way into the room, she looked around the room, rage on her face, until her eyes landed Shikamaru. Her eyes became sharp when she saw her missing teammate, but then they widened when they saw his state of dress or lack thereof. "S-S-Shikamaru, w-w-w-what are you? I-I-I didn't...." she tried to think of what to say to her naked teammate who, apparently, was in bed with their dead last classmate, yet her brain was unable to pursue the information that she was looking for. Just like her love rival and crush could not comprehend the sight before their own eyes either. Where they even seeing this right? Ino then made the mistake of looking over Naruto's naked form, her face turned red enough to make Hinata proud, Sakura and Sasuke's faces soon following. 

 

Naruto, in the meantime, was looking at the three newcomers in the room, and smirked, "like what you see?" He asked, making their faces go even redder.

 

Outside, Kakashi was just making his way to Naruto's apartment, lazily and without care. After he got to the training ground, nearly three hours after the time he said to meet them at, but then he found that one of his students hasn't arrived yet. He was about to start the test without him as payback for painting him the bday before, but then he got a great idea. Why not make the other two wait for the blond? Naruto would probably get there within the hour and then his teammates would get mad at him for making them wait even longer for him and then they would beat him up once they hear about what was needed for the test he was going to give them. Another hour passed by, making it about four hours after the met up time. Kakashi gave up on waiting for the blond once another half hour passed them by, so he suggested to them that they go to Naruto's apartment to go pick him up, by this point, both his future students were fuming at his third, which made him smile on the inside. He started to lead them out of the training field, but then he realized that he didn't know the boy's address, so he was forced to head over to the Hokage's office to get the information from the old Kage. On the way there, the remains of team seven ran into the remains of team ten, after a quick chat/yelling match between Ino and Sakura, they found out that Shikamaru was also missing. Asuma gave a good piece of information that he got from his friend, Shikaku, it seemed that Naruto took the ANBU commander's son home within last night. Kakashi found that to be somewhat interesting, so, after talking it over, and since they were heading in the same direction, Asuma and Kakashi agreed to go to the blond's apartment together. Upon reaching the area where they could see Naruto's apartment, Sakura and Sasuke ran into the apartment that Kakashi said was his, with Ino following not too far behind the two. Kakashi wasn't sure what he was expecting, a chair, a table...maybe the blond boy himself to be thrown and fly out the fourth story window of the rundown building. But when he got closer to the building, he saw none of that, he heard the seaming from Sakura and Ino, and feel the anger of Sasuke, but then it all stopped...almost as if it had never happened. Kakashi got curious, he turned to Asuma and his remaining student, Chouji, to see that they were also a little confused by the sudden change in volume of the harpy and banshee duo. So they quicken their pace towards the apartment, and what did they find when they finally entered the little house?

 

Three red-faced students in the doorway of the blond's bedroom, one redfaced Nara trying to hide underneath the bedsheet. But the most surprising thing they could see, was a completely naked Naruto _"...wait, is that a third leg?"_ Kakashi's one eye widened considerably, as did Asuma's when the two jonin laid their eyes upon Naruto's naked form. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

 

Asuma whistled,  _"and I thought that I was a big guy,"_  he thought as he looked at Naruto. He shook himself from his shock and cleared his thought, "so, uh, Naruto, you going to put on some clothes and explain why you and one of my students are naked and in bed together?" He smirked, he could  _feel_ Shikamaru's embarrassment from where he stood.  _"I'm sure Shikaku is going to want to hear about this one later at the bar."_

 

Naruto pouted at Asuma, "why should it matter, he'll be seeing more of me soon enough anyway," he said as he walked over to the closet to grab some clothes.

 

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Asuma asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

The others in the room also wanted to know, and Shikamaru seemed to be listening for the blond's reply as he peeked out from under the covers. Naruto could feel all eyes on him, some trying not to check out his tight and toned ass as he walked away from them to the closet. Naruto let the question hang in the air for a while until he picked out a suitable outfit that he wanted to wear, "you'll know soon enough," he said before turning around again with his clothes in hand, "you mind leaving? I don't really mind, but I don't think that Shika-chan would like to have an audience while he gets dressed," taking the hint, the jonin's herded the other kids from the room.

 

"We'll be out here when you're done," Kakashi stated as he was the last to leave the room. 

 

Naruto nodded and the silver-haired cyclops closed the door behind him. Naruto turned his eyes towards the bed, "would you like to borrow my clothes after your shower? I have a door that can take you to the bathroom from this room so you don't have to go out there where everyone would see you." He said as he tossed Shikamaru the clothes that he just took out for himself, they were about the same size, so he was sure that they would fit, he walked over to the walk next to his closet and touched a hidden seal there. The seal glowed a light blue for a moment before the wall gave way to a door size whole, Shikamaru caught the clothes and wrapped the bed sheets around him as he walked over to look into the doorway that was created by the seal, he was shocked to see the bathroom beyond it. "How did you..." he started as he looked at the smiling blond.

 

"Fuuinjutsu," he said simply.

* * *

 

**10 minutes later**

 

Once Shikamaru finished his shower, he was dressed in a dark green long-sleeved shirt and black shinobi pants that were tapped at the ankles. He wore his usual shinobi sandals, next to him was Naruto dressed in the same thing, but his top was a dark blue color instead of green like Shikamaru's. "Okay, since everyone here seems to be ready, let's get a move on," Kakashi stated as he nodded his farewell to his fellow jonin instructor.

 

"See ya, Shika-chan, maybe we can do this again sometime." Naruto winked as he passed by Shikamaru who blushed lightly and looked away from the blond muttering a soft 'troublesome' as he did so. Naruto chuckled, "cute," he said to himself as he followed the rest of his team to the training field. 

 

"What was that about, dobe?" Sasuke asked once they were far enough from team ten.

 

"What was what, Sasuke?" Naruto asked innocently.

 

Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the blond, Uchiha's don't roll their eyes, they simply grunt, nod, and ignored in their Uchiha language that no one can understand. "You know what I mean, don't be stupid," he stated moodily. "What was that back there, at your apartment? With Shikamaru? Are you guys...seeing each other?" He asked in a low voice so that his fangirl and new sensei wouldn't hear, but Kakashi was a jonin and picked up the conversation easily enough.

 

Naruto chuckled, "what's the matter, Sasuke? You jelly?" He gave the brooding boy a grin, he got a glare in return, "awe, are you jelly, does Sasu-chan?" He giggled when he saw the light blush accompany the softening glare that Sasuke was giving him, "you are, aren't you! Oooh, does Sasu-chan want to spend with Naruto too?" He asked as he swung an arm over Sasuke's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "don't worry, I can make it a night that you won't forget."

 

"KAAAYYYAAAA!!!" Came the scream from Sakura, everyone on the street they were currently on turned to her screams, but she didn't seem to notice anyone else as she marched up to the mildly annoyed Naruto, and the blushing, but still annoyed, and somewhat thankful Sasuke. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING TO MY SASUKE-KUN?!" She seemed at the blond, the might of her voice making the boy's hair fly away from his face since he wasn't wearing his headband on his forehead today, so his hair was wild and free, almost resembling that of another certain blond, the Yondime, that once lived in Konoha about twelve years ago. Those that thought of how much the blond looked like that person quickly dismissed the thought as they remembered that this blond had whisker marks, meaning that he had to be the fox that killed the other blond that looked like Naruto all those years ago. Such logic. 

 

Naruto cleaned his ear with his pinky, "uh, hay Sakura, you mind yelling that a little louder? I don't think the people in Iwa heard you clear enough," he said with a blank face towards the girl.

 

Sakura's face was red with anger, "get your hand's off of Sasuke-Kun!" She said and was about to try and break Naruto's arm to accomplish her goal of 'freeing  _her_  Sasuke-Kun'. 

 

Keyword:  _try_

 

Before anyone knows or could do anything, Sakura was sent flying into the nearest wall, upside down. She left a dent in the wall before she slid down to the ground below. Turning back to see who had done such a thing to the pinkette, everyone saw that Naruto was already walking away from the scene of the 'crime'. When things started to register in the little brains of the villagers, one man decided to scream out, "DEMON! WE MUST KILL THE DEMON!!" And then they started to  _try_ and harm the blond. Naruto could only roll his eyes at their stupidity, he was thinking about letting the man get a taste of his power, but then he got an even better idea. 

 

"Oi, oi, what's all this now?" Naruto asked as he turned around to the gathered crowd behind him to see that they all had already gathered up tools to hurt him with. He sweat-dropped at them,  _"truly pathetic,"_ he thought, "okay everyone listens up, I've got something to say!" He said loud enough for everyone present could hear, he looked around at the crowd noticing that Kakashi was just sitting back reading a little orange book. Not even pretending to help,  _"oh, he will pay for that,"_  he thought venomously as he sent a quick glare at Kakashi, who seemed to ignore it.

 

"Why should we listen to a word that you have to say, demon?" One civilian woman from the crowd asked she held a, very cliche, pitchfork in her hands.

 

Naruto smiled brightly, "because two of you have already broken the third's law and are most likely to spend a few days in jail for that." He said happily, some of the people before him seemed to pale a little, but stayed strong with the group, if they had to, they could still run away while the others were dealt with. ANBU couldn't take them all in, right? Anyway, Naruto continued, "Alright, so what I wanted to say was that you should stop what you're doing right now, or else, in addition to disturbing the piece, you will have been charged with the harm and endangerment of a new clan head and his wife." He said shocking them all, even Sasuke seemed to be in a slight awe, but he quickly hit it playing it off as a bluff that the dobe was trying to pull to get out of whatever trouble he might have caused these people at one point or another. Though he was confused by the 'demon' part, even though Naruto was a troublemaker, he's not a demon. 

 

"What are you talking about boy? You ain't no clan head, and none of the real clan heads are here right now," said another man from the crowd.

 

"That's where you are wrong," Naruto smirked, "you are looking at the new clan head of the Uzumaki-N-" he paused, he was about to say 'Namikaze' but he thought better of it. They would find out about that soon enough, although he wondered how they didn't know already since there was only one other blonde in the village with his hair and eye color, he sighed, "you know what, on second thought, it'll just be the Uzumaki clan for right now. And this-" he pulled Sasuke closer to his side, surprising the already surprised Uchiha, "is one of my wives."

 

"WHAAAAATT!!" Came the collective screams of the people close enough to hear him

 

"That's impossible!!"

 

"How could Hokage-sama award a demon his own clan? He'll spread his spawn in no time!"

 

"Oh no, WE'RE DOOMED!!"

 

"Wait, why did he say that Sasuke-sama is one of his wives?"

 

"Sasuke's a boy! He must be joking around. I told you that the demon was a lier!" 

 

Were just some of the comments of the crowd as the processed the news. Naruto shook his head, "if you all don't believe me, then ask Hokage-sama for yourselves. As for my wives, well, you'll find out soon enough," Naruto let go of Sasuke, who didn't seem to register it right away, and took a step back, "ja ne!" He smiled and left the scene in a fire shushine while everyone stood there staring at the spot he once stood in.

 

One random woman in the crowd spoke up then, "that brat might have a point, after all, I'm going to take to the Hokage right now. I'm not letting my daughter end up being a sacrificial lamb for that demon!" She yelled as she ran all the way to the Hokage tower to make sure that her child's name was not on the list to marry the demon container, maybe she could get some more information to spread about the blond while she was there. Other people in the crowd came to the same conclusion about their own children and started off towards the tower at the same pace as the woman, while most people that didn't have children, just followed the crowd to see what information they could get about the blond. It was like a small stamped as the largish group ran through town, but they didn't seem to care one bit when they arrived at the old man's office, they broke down the door and demanded answers for their questions in a very uncivil way. By the end of it all, Hiruzen had a headache the size of the mountain that his face was carved on.

* * *

**Two months later**

 

So, it's been about two months since Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke became a team under Kakashi. How did they do that? Well, Naruto was able to get Saura and Sasuke to work with him using methods that were simple enough to get them to work with him willingly. Since Sakura was down for the count, she did not wake up until after Naruto left the area and the mob of people went running towards the tower, so she didn't hear the news that Naruto had delivered to cause them to run towards the tower in the first place. So he bribed her with information on Sasuke's love life and mentioned the words 'marriage', 'engagement', and 'repopulating a clan' in the same sentence. Needless to say, he more than had her on his hook and she followed his orders as best she could with her skills, even though her skills were as limited as they were. For Sasuke, he tempted the Uchiha survivor with a jutsu that would make him stronger and would allow him to seek all sorts of intel if used correctly. Once he had them both on his side, they were able to get Kakashi's bells in under seven minutes or less with Naruto's simple plan. Kakashi's downfall was that he underestimated them all as dumb genin that couldn't work together to save their own lives even if they tried, and also the fact that they didn't act like a team earlier only reinforced his beliefs. They all passed when Kashi realized that they would make a pretty decent team, they were so happy that Sakura and Sasuke almost forgot about the agreement they had with the blond However when they turned back to get their promised goods, Naruto was nowhere to be found, they only found a note that said that they would get what he promised them after their missions the next day. When the next day did come, Naruto told Sakura what he told the crowd the day before, but she refused to believe him and called him a lier. The jutsu that Naruto gave Sasuke to make him stronger as the 'Phaser' jutsu that would allow anyone to easily slide through walls and other solid objects with ease. It was an A ranked jutsu that Naruto, himself came up with when he was only six and was running away from ANBU. 

 

After the bell test, everything went back to how it was before. Sasuke was a brooding avenger with a fangirl ready to pounce on the nearest thing that tried to say that the object of her affections was imperfect in any way, along with a porn reading sensei. As far as Naruto was concerned, he was the only normal person on the team. Kakashi didn't take their training seriously, even though he was a jonin and he was supposed to be preparing them for chunin level, the only thing he taught them was team building and formations. They went on D rank missions to earn money and also build on team dynamic, Naruto was unimpressed by the teams progress and would send his clones to work with the team while he went off on his own to do some real training. 

 

Also, during his two months spent as a Konoha genin, Naruto decided that it would be best to simply date his future wives before telling them anything about the marriage proposals that their parents had signed them up for. He wanted to make sure that they didn't feel too uncomfortable with the arrangement because their parents wanted to help him rebuild a clan they used to be allied with. The first person that Naruto was going to tell was Shikamaru, seeing as how they had already gon out on a date already, but then he knows that Shikamaru's reaction would be a little...hysterical, so he came up with another plan. Which was to get to know the boy first, in fact, after convincing Shikamaru to go on two more dates with him, he figured that he might as well do the same thing with all of his other soon-to-be wives. So, started with Shikamaru, he got to know each and every boy better, whether he was meant to marry then soon or not didn't matter because now he had a reason to make new friends. After Shikamaru, he went after Shino, slowly getting to know the bug user bit by bit as the weeks passed, he found out that they had quite a lot in command with him. They had their first date at a botanical guardian on the upper west side of the village, a place where they could have privacy and be surrounded by nature at the same time, it was there that Shino seemed to loosen up a little and talk to the blond more. Next on the list was Hinata, discovering that she was actually a  _he_ in disguise made Naruto quite interested in him, the process was a bit slow, Hinata kept fainting every time he got too close for comfort. Thought things slowly got better as time passed, Hinata slowly coming out of his shell bit by bit the more he spent time with the blond, yet, when Naruto did ask him out on their first date to Ichiraku's, he passed out for most of the day. Once Naruto had gotten all of his quieter future brides out of the way, it was time to get Kiba to spend some time with him, which wasn't too hard a challenge after Tsume, Kiba's mother talked to her son and  _persuaded_ him to hang out with the blond more. Naruto wasn't sure he liked the fact that Kiba was somewhat forced to hang out with him, but he did his best to make the dog whispering boy relaxed while they hung out, Kiba slowly calmed down about the issue and started to enjoy himself on their dates. They mostly did pranks and talked about past pranks that they had done and what they could do to make them better for the future, they also trained from time to time, in which such time, Akamaru started to accompany them on their regular outings. Their first date happened in an empty training ground under a disguise of a regular training session, Kiba was already warming up to the blond so he didn't mind it all that much once he found out that it was, in fact, a date. Though he kept trying to play the alpha male role in their relationship, he was quite acceptable to the fact that he and Naruto were dating now. For Sasuke, Naruto didn't need to sneak about and disguise anything, he hung out with the Uchiha almost every day since the raven was on his team, so he didn't feel the need to do too much of what he had done with the others. He did try to get the Uchiha alone so they could have time to themselves, but they would either be interrupted by a screaming Sakura or a cockblocking Kakashi or both and that on Naruto's nerves real quick.

 

Naruto had yet to tell any of his mates about the wedding arrangments, mostly because the Hokage was trying to figure out a proper date for their wedding, or weddings, to happen. As far as he knew, all of the clan's had some ritual that they needed to do to marry their child off to another clan, especially a new one. The Inuzuka's needed the time to test Naruto to see if he was worthy, even though the Hokage had assured Tsume that Naruto was cable enough to pass their test. The Inuzuka's test usually revolved around strength and protecting the pack, two things that Naruto was always willing to do for the ones he loved. The Nara clan would usually test the husband or wife that was marrying into their clan with some intelligence test. The Abarame's usually tested that person's heart to see if it was in the right place. As for the Hyuuga's, they tested the strength of the person's spirit. Each test would take up to one to two weeks, each, and that took time, so Hiruzen wanted to talk it over with the clan heads to make sure that they all had enough time each to do each test before they finalized the deal. Naruto could not be distracted during the test or else he would fail them, he needs to be completely focused and well rested if he hoped to have a better chance at passing each test. 

 

But, as of today, Hiruzen Sarutobi has come to a decision on when Naruto could do each test and who went first. Seeing as how Naruto had already started a pattern for them to follow, the Nara clan would go first just as how Naruto dated his boyfriends. Yet, no one knew what the Uchiha clan's rituals were since not many people had been invited to such a wedding, but still, the civilian council was sure to come up with something. 

 

Right now, Naruto and his team were heading towards the tower where they would return a certain demon cat to its heavy set owner before some other team had to re-catch it. "Team seven reporting in sir, we have our target," Sasuke stated as he walked up to the Hokage and place the brown cat down on the table. He didn't let go of said cat, Tora until it was being squeezed to death by its owner.

 

"Very good, now then, we still have more missions for you all to do, we have babysit-" Hiruzen started to read out the list of missions, but got interrupted.

 

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, I would like to have a mission that challenges my skills more. I refuse to be held back by weaklings any longer and want to expand my horizons as I need-" Sasuke was then interrupted by a yawn from Naruto. Sasuke grew a tick mark as he clenched his hands into a fist, he didn't look back at the blond because he felt like he would rip said boy to shreds in the middle of the mission's room, "got something to say, dobe?"

 

Naruto finished his long yawn, "nope, not really, your highness, please, do continue on, it was getting good," he mocked. 

 

Sakura growled, "STOP MAKING FUN OD SASUKE-KUN, BAKA!!" She tried, and failed, to throw a punch at the blond, but missed him when he side-stepped her and she fell on her face.

 

Naruto yawned again, "can we wrap this up? I have something to do with this," he said with his hands behind his head, looking board.

 

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I would have said you were a Nara by blood," came a lazy drool from the door. Everyone turned to the source of the voice, it was Shikamaru.

 

"Oi, Shika-chan, we still on for cloud watching this afternoon?" Naruto asked with a small smile, it was a real smile too, the other team members of team seven had to rub their eyes to make sure they hadn't gone blind or something, when they looked again, the smile was gone and all was right with their world.

 

"Sure thing, but Ino dragged us all in her to get a higher mission so we might have to postpone just in case we get it," Shikamaru yawned.

 

"Jeez, Shika, why don't you do some more training and a little less sleeping, I'm sure you'll find a girlfriend if you just got into shape already!" Came the annoyed comment of her lazy teammate.

 

"Girls are way too troublesome to deal with, but I guess I'll have to have kids at some point, I suppose," Shikamaru said, looking as if he would fall asleep on his feet again. It happened before during one of their babysitting missions, and he was standing mostly straight up, no leaning or anything. It had honestly freaked out Ino that she screamed in his ear to wake him up, but the kids they were babysitting thought it was kind of cool and wanted to try it themselves.

 

"Whatever, troublesome woman," Shikamaru sighed as his eyes drooped a little.

 

Naruto chuckled, "well if that's the case, then I wouldn't mind doing a joint mission with ya." He announced, "it would give us more time to hang out, plus it beats working with little miss loudmouth and mister avenger over there all the time. Oh, and don't even get me started on Kakashi and his porn," Shikamaru and Naruto both laughed, while Chouji, who had been listening to the conversation, chuckled lightly. Naruto had made time getting to know Chouji as well, if somehow failed one of the tests, he could try again with him and see how that worked out, it could be fun, and as it turned out, he found Chouji to be pretty cool too. 

 

"I'm right here, Naruto," Kakashi said behind his orange book, further proving the male blond's point.

 

Iruka cleared his throat, "well, since you both have come in for higher missions, allow me to remind you of the fact that you are all still a genin. Genin don't get anything higher than D rank missions until they turn chunin, understand?"

 

"Actually, Iruka, maybe this isn't such a bad thing," Hiruzen said as he smiled at Naruto and Shikamaru behind his laced fingers.

 

"Huh? Hokage-sama, you can't be serious, can you?" Iruka asked, not believing that the Hokage was going to let mere getting get a higher mission.

 

"I am," Hiruzen nodded his head once, "could you please bring in Tazuna from the hall, please? I have the perfect mission for these genins." Iruka hesitated for a momen, looking over the six genin and their jonin sensei's, he then sighed and went to do what he was asked. "Thank you, now then, how would you all like to take a trip to a little country called Wave?"

 

 

**To Be Continued...**

 


	7. Wave 2

The mission to wave didn't sit well with Naruto for some reason. He didn't exactly know what that reason was, but he knew that there was one and that was all the reason he really needed. So after listening to the details about team seven's joint mission with team ten, he set out to prepare to leave the village for the first time in a long time. Only this time, the Hokage would actually know that he was leaving for a certain length of time, instead of having his ANBU report him missing when they went to check on him during those rare times when they actually cared whether he was still in the village or not. reaching home, Naruto could see that someone had broken into his apartment yet again and rolled his eyes, wondering how much damage was done this time. The place was messy and broken windows and splintered wood was thrown about carelessly. As soon as he opens his door, it fell off its hinges and almost crushed him underneath its weight if he hadn't moved in time. His table was broken, his walls had holes in it, his bathroom door was missing, and his toilet was smashed to pieces. His oven was also gone, and so was his couch, bed and a few of the draws in his dresser and one in his nightstand, but he found those draws, as well as the clothes within them scattered all over the street that ran along the other side of his building. He could see that someone took special care to cut up and rip up all the clothes he had in his apartment before throwing them everywhere, some inside, some outside, and scraps of them were still floating away in the breeze. Any food he still had in his cabinet was either scattered and smashed to pieces on the kitchen floor or were painting his walls. Most of the wallpaper in his home was torn down and ugly profanities were spray painted on instead, and the thing that didn't make any sense to him whatsoever was the trash that they actually  _brought into_ his apartment. It was disgusting, and it made him realize that the dumpster outside his building wasn't empty because it was trash day, that day was tomorrow, but because of this. People would be willing enough to take other's trash from a filled dumpster, and then bring it all into his home. 

 

This was the final straw. 

 

Naruto had had enough of this village and its ways, and he was going to put his foot down. He was planning on holding off on moving into his parent's estate until he was actually married and to his first 'wife'. Hiruzen told him that he had sent some teams to clean the place and furnish it so that it would be ready to move into when Naruto was ready, but Naruto didn't want Hiruzen to furnish a home that he would be moving into, that would not give him the personal touch that he liked to have so Hirzen only told the teams clean. Now that this has happened to his apartment, he was going to have to move in sooner than he thought, so instead of walking about this mess, trying to clean it up in anyway possible before leaving for his mission, he just set out to his room. Once he got there, he dug through the trash and broken glass until he got to the still somewhat intact floorboards next to the broken leg pieces of his bed, the only thing left of his bed. He removed the remaining floorboards and took out a medium sized chest, he opened the chest reveal stacks upon stacks of money and a few bags of gold coins. All those times Naruto had disappeared from the village in the past had been under a henge, he also had clones henged into Jonin and ANBU that went out on dangerous missions and brought back all their earnings to him in secret. Of course, a shadow clone can only last so long outside, but Naruto had learned to seal from an anonymous source and used his knowledge to reinforce his clones so that they didn't pop when it was hit because that would be inconvenient. Also, he had alias's for each of his clones and made sure to keep them as active as possible with the seal he created for them three years ago, which so happened to be able to take in nature chakra to keep the clones as real as real can be. Because of this, Naruto had amassed somewhat of a sizable fortune.

 

But that's not all. In addition to his henged clones bringing back all their money from missions ranging from B-SS rank was all that he had collected over the years. Seeing as how he first learned the shadow clone jutsu when he was still only four after the orphanage had kicked him out when he was only two, forcing him to sleep on the streets for two years. He also meets the Kyuubi around that time. When the old man found about the blond being kicked out, he moved Naruto into his current apartment, which was, even though completely run down back then, still looked a hell of a lot better than it did now after so many years of abuse and break-ins. Naruto also saved up the stipend checks that he got from the old man, converting it into cash through one of his aliases. So what did that mean for Naruto now? It means that he had more than enough money saved up to buy three compounds of his own, plus a large plot of land to build on if he wanted to. With this thought in mind, Naruto quickly got to work finding all the other chest with savings in it, because he didn't trust the banks, they were scattered under different parts of the apartment's floorboards for safekeeping, with a security seal that killed anyone that tried to take away his money without Naruto's exact consent. There were a total of almost ten medium-sized chests and two large chests that he hid in the walls with seals. Some of the medium-sized chests also had to be placed into storage seals in the walls and such because he didn't want to group them all together just in case a ninja sensed the small chakra output needed to keep the seals secure. He also had the seals rotate and change positions every few days so they were never in the same place for too long and only Naruto would know where each chest was hidden. Now that Naruto had gathered up all his money, he took out a storage scroll from his weapons pouch and placed all the chest inside, then left the broken down apartment to head over to the market district, but first, before he left completely, he did a few hand signs and blow out a massive fireball that would burn his apartment down to nothing bush ashes and left.

 

It would be like he was never even there.

* * *

**Market**

 

Naruto was now looking for one of his henges since he put the seals on them, they were more like real people in a way. They were still his clones and he could dispell them whenever he wanted, but he let them live their own lives however they wanted, it was like an experiment for him. They would report back to him on their missions and give him their money, but lately, there was one clone in particular that had been taking his own cut of the profits he got from the missions. Naruto wanted to know why and asked this clone why he did. Since the clone was still him with his mindset and everything, just under henge, they both knew that he could not fool himself for long, the clone simply told him that the money was going towards another project that Naruto would find interesting. Naruto, in fact, did find that interesting and allowed the clone to continue the project, giving it an allowance for the said project and told him to report on his findings on the project. But as of a few months ago, the same time that Naruto had become a genin actually, this clone's project seemed to have taken a bit of a turn. Naruto had asked the clone what happened the last time he saw it, and the clone responded with "one of the subjects died," Naruto didn't know what to make of that statement and could only give his condolences to the clone. Naruto still lets the clone continue with the project, seeing as how this clone was an ANBU captain, the last time he had seen this clone was about a little over a month ago now and Naruto felt that it was the time that he found out more about the project. But if that wasn't enough, earlier this morning, said clone had left a note under Naruto's pillow saying that it felt it was time Naruto knew of the project's details in full. Curious about the details, Naruto followed the directions to rondavels with the clone in a secret location so they could talk. He would also get to meet the remaining subjects of the project that the clone was conducting all this time, it's been about roughly three to four years since the project started, but Naruto had always been busy with other issues to think too deeply on it. Now that he had the chance, he could hardly wait to see the results.

 

"Haruki, its good to hear from you again," Naruto stated evenly as he walked up to a tall man with fiery red hair and golden brown eyes.

 

The man, Haruki, turned to see the young blond approach him, he smirked, "Oi, boss, what took you so long?" 

 

Yes, this was the clone, he was modeled after his mother, in some ways such as his hair and fair skin. The clone, Haruki, reported to Naruto that some people commented that he looked a lot like his mother, except for his eyes. They were meeting in an abandoned playground, but it was only abandoned because it was still during school and naptime hours, however, Naruto spotted a couple of kids playing in the sandbox, wide awake. Naruto sat down next to Haruki and watched the kids play, "so, what are the findings of your research?" Naruto finally asked after a few minutes of silence gone by with them watching the two kids play, one was a little girl with golden eyes and red hair, while the other was a boy, one year younger than the girl, he had dark, wavy raven hair and red eyes? Naruto field that information away for later.

 

Haruki gestured to the two kids in the sandbox, "your looking at them." 

 

Naruto looked at the clone with the corner of his eye, "explain."

 

"About four years ago, when my initial research started, I came to notice how my looks seemed to garner many women's attention. Most of them were gained in bars and other adult-only places, but after a while, it got progressively stronger as time went on when I started to show my face more often after missions. I would, of course, be out of my ANBU uniform and in plain clothes when I went to those places" Haruki explained.

 

Naruto turned his eyes back to the kids, "and what could you have been doing in those places?"

 

Haruki chuckled, "gathering information isn't just sneaking around in the dead of night and in between shadows, boss. I also had to get close to people, get them to drop their guard and ease the information out of them and all without them knowing, it was hard work, and that hard work pays off eventually. Its been four years now since I first came upon a thought, a thought that had gotten me curious about myself."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, "yourself? You're a clone, you are made up of chakra, smoke, and a seal that keeps you from dispelling involuntarily, what's there to wonder about?" Haruki chuckled again, Naruto was starting to wonder if his clone was going insane with all of this freedom he had been given but was reassured when the clone continued talking.

 

"But that's just it, boss," Haruki stated with a smirk, "I know what you know up until you created me, so I only know the basics of sealing and fuuinjutsu altogether. That seal you placed on me, as well as the other clones, was meant to make us more human, right?" Naruto nodded, "well that's where my project started, you see, since I am a clone, I am a basic copy you, right? Including chakra and memories, I have a small portion of your DNA within me, that may or may not have been a side effect of the jutsu that created me, but still, I have it, and so does the other clones, so what did that mean in the long run I wondered. Then it came to me. What would happen if I had sex?"

 

Now Naruto was full on glaring at his clone for being so vulgar while the children were right there in the sandbox. Naruto narrowed his eyes, "excuse me?" 

 

Haruki held up his hands in defense, "hay, you created me before you found your preference and got your dojutsu, so I'm still open to whatever."

 

"And here I thought you would keep my personality back then, now," Naruto said with a sigh. He shook his head, "okay, so you had sex, what happened next?"

 

Haruki smiled at his creator, he pointed to the little girl with red hair and golden eyes, "she did." Naruto followed the little redhead's movements with his eyes, analyzing her with a calculating eye, "her name is Hima Uzumaki, her mother abandoned her on my doorsteps not even a day after giving birth to her."

 

Naruto frowned in disapproval, "why?" He asked, not understanding how some, and a mother no less, could be so cruel to a newborn.

 

"Well, since you created me, I did well for myself, we all did. I found an old abandoned house on the good side of town and used the allowance to fix the place up before moving in. I was planning to make it my headquarters so that if Hima's mother wanted to come over for a visit with her, I would have somewhere to study and track her growth, I showed it to her after she told me that I was the father, but I already knew since I made sure to keep track of her the whole time." Haruki explained, "then when she finally had Hima, she came over to my house, knocked on the door, and then left Hima there on the doorstep, but kept watch of her from an ally across the street to make sure that I took in the girl." Haruki frowned, "she was incredibly small for a newborn from what I read, and it seemed as though she wasn't fully developed. I was disappointed that the mother left her without looking back or trying to get to know her up to now, a real shame," he shook his head. "The same went for the boy as well, his name is Jin Uzumaki, he almost died when his mother dropped him off because I was off on assignment for the days, and he had to wait almost a day before I came back. But unlike Hima, his mother didn't stick around to see if her child was taken in, I guess it was to be expected..."

 

Naruto took in the information with a deepening frown, "I take it that its two different mothers for each child, huh? How did you meet both of them?"

 

Haruki gave his creator a long hard look before turning back to the two children sho had moved onto the swings. "A bar, both of them." He started, "the first one, Hima's mother, came in to celebrate passing her chunin exams, she seemed like she would be a simple target, so after a few drinks, we went back to her place. Her name was Akami, she's the one who gave Hima her eyes. Anyway, we did it and then went our own ways, it was the next day that the thought came to me about the DNA thing, so I found Akami and tracked her condition in my free time. I made sure to befriend her during that time before she found out, then after she told me, she distanced herself from me bit by bit, but knew that I wanted to take care of Hima...I believe that's why she left her like she did. The next one was a woman named Kurani Yuhi a year or so later, the famed genjutsu mistress, she had just been dumped by some guy and vented it all to me. Since I worked with her on a couple of missions up until then, she felt as though she could trust me to some extent, plus she was wasted as hell, but," he shrugged. "We did it, but then she kept it a secret from me, seeing as how she couldn't even remember that night anyway. I'm guessing that she wasn't ready to settle down just yet, because about a week after she gave birth, I came come to see a baby on my doorstep."

 

Naruto blinked at his clone, Kurani Yuhi, that was a name he was familiar with recently. Mostly because of an attack, he had to suffer through it from a woman with the same eyes as Jin, she had put him under some intense genjutsu that was too painful to think about even now. It left scars on his mind, even when the physical ones were long gone, the genjutsu he was put under really put his mind through the paces because it showed him losing everything he could ever love in this world. After that day, he stopped trying to make any friends, just going through the motions and trying to find something to peek his interest from time to time. He's still recovering from the mental scarring it caused. Now that he was hearing about this, he was interested in knowing more, Haruki had seen the look and continued to report.

 

"Neither Akami or Kurani had made any effort to see their abandoned children. Any time Akami sees me, it's mostly in my ANBU uniform, so she doesn't know who I am behind the mask because I never told her. And the rare time she sees Hima walking around the village with me, she gets a sad look in her eye, but she ever comes over and talks to me, and if I'm heading in her direction, she would turn around and head the other way." Haruki leaned forward on the bench they were sitting on, he had his elbows on his knees to hold him as he stared at the two children with a somber look in his eyes, "as for Kurani, she ignores the fact that she ever had a child. I've spied on her a few times to see that she doesn't even spare a single thought towards the son she had left behind on my doorstep."

 

Naruto watched Haruki for a moment, he leaned back in his seat, and stared up at the sky, "you gave them my last name?" He asked as he closed his eyes, Haruki hummed his response, "why?"

 

"Because it's your DNA that's running through them," Haruki said before falling silent again, letting Naruto absorbed the information. Both their trains of thoughts were interrupted when they heard a baby gurgle next to Haruki's side.

 

Naruto's eyes snapped open when he heard the sound, he turned his head around to see where the noise was coming from when he heard the baby again. His eyes zero's in a small basket beside Haruki, Naruto got up and walked over to stand in front of the basket. "Haruki...what the hell is this?" Naruto asked as he stared down at the basket.

 

Haruki sat up and rubbed the back of his head with a frown on his face, "to tell you the truth boss, I was trying to figure that out myself."

 

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "this is clearly a baby, and this little 'experiment' that you've been doing explains how it came to be. So please, explain to me how you don't know what this is," he said rounding on his clone while trying to keep his voice calm so he wouldn't scare the kids. The baby in the basket had golden blond hair, bright blue eyes with specks of red in them, and looked an awful lot like Naruto, but unlike Naruto, he only had two whisker marks on each cheek. Naruto looked back at the other two kids to see that they did not have any whisker marks on them at all, "why does he look so much like me when they," he pointed at the two kids playing on the swing, "don't even have whiskers?" 

 

Haruki shrugged his shoulders, "that's what I meant." He clarified, "I have no idea how they don't have whisker marks, but I assumed that it was because of genetics." Naruto didn't seem impressed, "okay, okay, well you know your mother is an Uzumaki, so since her Uzumaki blood has red hair, and I carry your DNA and also have red hair, Hima got red hair. But for him, well," Haruki rubbed the back of his neck again, "his mother came from the Yamanaka clan and you know they are the only other people in Konoha that has blond hair and blue eyes, so..." He let the comment hang in the air for a second, "but I didn't sleep with a Yamanaka, I swear," he made a crossover where his heart would be.

 

Naruto let all of this sink in, he looked at Haruki, then Hima and Jin, and finally rested his gaze on the unknown baby. The child looked to be just two months old, shockingly enough. He sighed in frustration when he looked up at the position of the son, he had a little under five minutes to get to the meeting spot with the rest of his team and team ten. "I don't have time for this, we'll talk more when I get back from my mission," Naruto said as he turned to leave, but stopped as he looked at the baby, "what's his name." 

 

Haruki smiled, "the name Arashi, keeps popping into my mind."

 

Naruto nodded, "I'll be back within a month or so," he then hopped out of the clearing to go meet with his team.

* * *

**Main gate**

 

"Oh, my GOOOOD!! WHERE IS NARUTOOO!" Sakura whined loudly as they waited an extra five minutes from the time they were supposed to leave.

 

Kakashi was reading his porn and not caring. Though he was mad that his blond student got to be late and he didn't, so he said nothing in hopes to see the said student get beaten to a pulp by his pink haired student. Sasuke was didn't care either way, he was too busy brooding and thinking of ways to kill his brother and um, more brooding. Ino was going between pacing the length of the gate and sending glances at Sasuke when she thought he wasn't looking and then posing sexily when she thought he was. Shikamaru was sitting down on the opposite side of the gate from Sasuke and was looking up at the clouds, not to be bothered by anything more than Sakura's loud mouth. Chouji was eating. Asuma was smoking. and the client, Tazuna, was trying to kill his pre-mission/travel hangover by getting drunk again, it was just the logical thing to do you know? When you have a hangover, just drink more and all your problems will be solved right. Well, another five minutes passed by, making a total of ten minutes since the mission was supposed to start when Naruto finally came into view of the people at the gate. The males of both team ten and seven watched as both banshees descended on the approaching blond like a pack of wild animals that hadn't eaten in days and would fight to the last breath for a single piece of meat. It seemed like an accurate description of the two girls because if you looked closely, they both had wild looks in their eyes that seemed animalist and some foam was coming from their mouths. So they were most like rabid animals if nothing else. 

 

However, Naruto did not allow them to tackle and beat him like Kakashi had hoped, instead, he stuck his foot out at just the right time and a few things happened. One, Ino tripped over the outstretched foot and tumbled a few feet behind and away from the male blond. Two, Sakura was about to hit him over the head with what she assumed was the strength needed to 'beat the sense into him', but instead of getting hit, Naruto grabbed her fist. Next, after realizing that Naruto had to be the one to trip her, Ino got back on to her feet and ran towards the blond again, this time with a fist of her own, but Naruto was ready for her. So lastly, Naruto decided that Ino and Sakura surely deserved each other, and pulled Sakura's caught fist towards himself wild turning around at the same time, putting a little strength behind the movement, and allowed Sakura a chance to fly. Right into her rivals fist. The commotion was enough to make the people passing by stop to see what was going out, they expected the two girls to yell and beat up the seemingly defenseless blond boy up, but was shocked to see that the so-called 'demon' was able to defend himself perfectly fine. Everyone was shocked by this, the following happened:

Asuma's cigaret fell out of his mouth.

 

Kakashi dropped his porn.

 

Chouji  _almost_ dropped his chips.

 

And Sasuke allowed himself a brief moment to look shocked before hiding it behind an emo mask.

 

Shikamaru, on the other hand, was not shocked because he knew that Naruto had the skills to sneak into ANBU HQ and also paint the Hokage mountain, both without getting caught. So why not have the skills to defend himself against two fangirls sho don't even  _try_ to work out or train properly? Meanwhile, Tazuna was sobering up after the little display of power from the male blond and commented, "wow, you're not as dumb as I thought you were shorty."

 

Naruto ignored the comment on his height and made a mental note to start using his savings to get a better diet going. He's had enough of the name calling because of how much shorter he was than the other boys in his age group. He sighed tiredly, "can we go now? It's already gotten so late," he said as he walked passed everyone and started out the gate.

 

Kakashi was the first to snap out of his stupor, "it's gotten so late because we happened to be waiting for you smart ass." He said as he picked his little orange book and whispered apologies to it as if it were a living being sent from the gods.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "well excuse me, but I had some relocating and supplying to do, Hatake."

 

"Wha-why you little," Kakashi didn't like the amount of disrespect his blond student was showing him, but he couldn't do anything to the little brat because Asuma was holding him back. 

 

"Calm down, Kakashi, I don't see why you're so man when you usually make people wait three to four hours for you when going out on missions." Asuma stated before blowing out a stream of smoke from his mouth, "I was surprised to see you actually come somewhat on time today."

 

Shikamaru easily matched Naruto's steps, "what did you mean by relocating? Did you move or something," He asked with Chouji falling into step next to the two boys.

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, I did, my old apartment isn't what it used to be and I had to let it go so that I could move on to bigger and better things."

 

Tazuna fell into step behind the trio who managed to take point on the trip. "What happened to your old apartment? Did the roof finally cave in?" Chouji asked worriedly, he and Shikamaru had been to Naruto's apartment during the time they were getting to know each other and they were not sure how the blond managed to live there for so long. The place was just waiting to fall down and it was hardly somewhere a kid to live, let alone by himself, there was rotted wood everywhere.

 

Naruto shook his head and made sure that only Shikamaru, Chouji, and since Tazuna didn't really know him all that well, he allowed him to hear what he had to say too, but no one else. "The thing is, when I got home to pack, my place was broken into," he whispered to them and then retold what the villagers had done to his longtime home. To say Tazuna was shocked was an understatement, "now I get to live in a new place that my parents left for me after they died."

 

"Seriously? Man, those guys went way too far with that, are you okay?" Chouji asked his blond friend. 

 

Naruto sighed, "yeah, I'm fine, but they broke or stole all of my furniture so now I have to start from square one when I get back." He groaned it was going to be a lot of work picking out furniture that would fit his style and new home, not to mention taking said furniture from the store and moving it to his house. Truth be told, he was leaving all of that until he got back so he could see what would go where and how much space he would have when he finally moved in. The old man said there was going to be enough space for him, his wives, and his future children to move around comfortably and still have guest sleepover from time to time. Yet, he did not know how much space that actually was, plus, he was hoping to let his future brides choose their own furniture and rooms when he got back. Also, speaking about that, he still needed to tell them Shikamaru and the others that they were his future brides, and also, there was the whole thing with Haruki and his supposed children. Suddenly Naruto wasn't looking forward to coming back to the village, so much work to be done.

 

"Hey Naruto, you there?" Shikamaru asked as he waved a hand in front of Naruto's face.

 

The said blond blinked his eyes and looked around at his surroundings to see where they were since he had traveled outside of the village before, he knows this rout relatively well. Although, he had never been to Wave Country before now, still, he knew de wea. They were still in Fire Country, it seemed as though the rest of the time had caught up with them and they were slowly pushed towards the back. He looked over at Shikamaru, "sorry, I was thinking, what did you say?"

 

"Jeez kid, you sure you're not in shock or something?" Tazuna asked, "because I know from experience that a breaking like that would shack up even the best of 'em. I might not have gone through something that extreme before, but I've been through something close, and it still shakes me." The bridge builder shook his head, "something like that, you can't get over so easily like one, two, three kid, you gotta take it slow."

 

Naruto nodded sagely, "I hear ya," he said and they all fell into silence after that. The following trip was spent in just as much silence, there were some conversations that took place to fill the air, nothing thing of any importance really. They stopped by a few small towns and villages along the way to rest or resupply or both. Sakura and ino had fought for Sasuke's affections for about a few hours during the start of the trip until Naruto had had more than enough and slapped silence seals on both of them to give everyone a break. Kakashi tried to get Naruto to take off the seals on them, but Naruto only agreed to remove them when they needed to fight, saying that their voices would make good distracts or even weapons while in a fight. Was he wrong? Shikamaru, Chouji, Tazuna, and even Asuma and Sasuke didn't really think so, but Sasuke would never admit it, and Asuma, well, he didn't care as long as Ino didn't get too banged up while out of the village or else he would face the wrath of Inoichi. Rumor has it that the blond clan head was as scary as a mother bear when it came to his little princess being hurt. Kakashi could also not help but feel that the two girl's voices would good weapons in a time of need, but like Sasuke, he would never admit it. So onwards they went, walking at civilian speed to get to Wave Country so they could complete the first part of their mission, the trip was going well until...along came a puddle on the side of the road. 

 

Naruto noticed the puddle two miles away, something about his senses just felt off when he snift the air. One mile away from the puddle and he could see why his senses felt off. So, he nudged his friends to get their attention, "there's a puddle coming up, "he whispered to them." The noticed it and nodded their heads to show that they saw it. He noticed that Kakashi and Asuma saw the puddle as well, but they made no move to tell the others or get prepared in any way until they were right on top of the puddle. As soon as they passed, the water erupted and out flew two chunin level missing ninjas. They took out the two jonin's first, 'killing' them before the started to run towards their target: Tazuna. It was then that Naruto figured out all he needed to about what the rest of the mission would entail, so he got prepared. So he got prepared and gave out orders after quickly analyzing the situation.

 

"Shika, shadow possession jutsu, for as long as you can, go! Chouji, partial expansion jutsu, I want you to box them in, don't leave room for them to escape before I get to them." Naruto said in an authoritative voice, as he got out some Kuni and shuriken from his pouch.

 

"Right!" Chouji nodded as he did his jutsu.

 

"Troublesome," Shika commented before doing his own jutsu, thankfully Naruto had been training with them whenever the two of them weren't on a mission so he can last longer with his shadow possession. 

 

Shikamaru managed to catch one of the missing ninjas with his shadow, but the other one got away, but he didn't let that distract him. Chouji was close behind Shikamaru with his own jutsu being able to just catch the leg of the second ninja. The second ninja was about to stab Chouji's enlarged hands with his poisoned weapon when a call of "summoning jutsu," rang out in the air, followed by a loud poofing sound. Before anyone knew anything, a large white tiger came out of seemingly nowhere and pounced on the second missing ninja, tearing into the man as soon as the animal made contact with the man. The next thing that was to happen was Sasuke shouting out 'fire style: fireball jutsu," after that, the first missing ninja caught by Shikamaru's jutsu was nearly burned alive with the fire attack. The man screamed in agony for a while until he no longer made any sound. As soon as he finished his jutsu, Sasuke turned to the other missing ninja to finish him off once he noticed that the white tiger was now only holding the ninja in place and advanced on the caught ninja with Kuni in hand. Chouji was still holding onto the ninja's legs, while Shika pulled back his shadow when he saw it was no longer needed, and the fangirls were cheering on their crush as the fight unfolded, and Tazuna just watched in awe of the young genin. Before Sasuke could get any closer to the last enemy ninja, Naruto stepped in his way.

 

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked a little-pissed off, a little curious as to what Sasuke would answer him with,

 

It was the usual Uchiha way, so he was not really surprised to hear, "move out of the way dobe! I am about to finish this guy off," said the avenger.

 

"YEAH, LET SASUKE-KUN FINISH THAT SUMBAG OFF?" Where the shouts of the peanut gallery.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, wondering why he picked the Uchiha as one of his future brides, he clearly was not thinking straight in the heat of battle, so why? Then again, this was his first time out of the village and in a real fight, so he would give the avenger a break. This time. "No Sasuke, you don't need to do that, they're finished," Naruto stated with a shake of his head.

 

Sasuke growled, "you do not tell me what I should and shouldn't do dobe! Move out of the way, I am an elite-" he was cut off by the blond in front of him.

 

"Well I don't care if you're a chicken sandwitch, I said they're done and they've already been disarmed. See?" Naruto said as he held up both of the gauntlets that the chunin brothers used to 'kill' their senseis, "no stop dicking around and help me interrogate them," he said as he was about to leave.

 

However, Sasuke wasn't having it, seeing the blond's actions as a blow to his ego, he reached a hand out to grab Naruto's shoulder and maybe punch him to teach him a lesson. But his lesson was turned around on him when Naruto grabbed Sasuke's wrist and flipped him over his shoulder and onto his own back in front of everyone. Seeing that they were not needed in the fight, Kakashi and Asuma came out from their hiding places with their female students calling out their names in relief once they saw their senseis were alive and well and not dead like they had been fooled to believe. "Good job everyone, excellent teamwork guys," Kakashi praised them all, even Sakura and Ino for watching the fi-I mean, guarding their client with their lives. Kakashi then turned back to Naruto who had ignored his raise and was already dragging way the remaining missing ninja that he had tied up while the Kakashi was talking. "Naruto, you didn't need to do that to your teammate, it was unca-"

 

"No Hatake, you are uncalled for," Naruto said with force, he turned back to look at the two jonin with a simply fidged glare. "And you Asuma, I expected more from you, allowing Hatake here to drag you into his lazy teaching, are you going to start reading porn in front of us next?"

 

Asuma flinched at the jab about his teaching methods, he didn't expect it to hurt coming from a lowly genin, but it wasn't what was said. It was the way the blond said that sent a shiver down the smoker's back, it was like he was being scolded like a child by a parent for doing something wrong. He supposed, now that he thought about it, he did do something wrong when he was handling the situation, he could have told his team so that they would have time to get ready. The Ino-Shika-Cho team was the best at teamwork. Or supposed to be. But yet, he had not practice anything concrete with them during all this time and yet Naruto, who had not work with his team on a mission, was able to band two of the trio together and form a working plan faster than Shikamaru could win a game of Shoji or GO against him.  _"How smart is this kid, and where was he hiding that skill before?"_ Asuma thought as his eyes drifted towards the white tiger,  _"and where did he get the summons for the White Tigers, they're legendary and almost no one can become their summoner, so how was he-?"_ He was pulled thought when Naruto placed a hand on the tied up enemy ninja's head and he started screaming a bloodcurdling scream.

 

"W-w-what are you doing to him dobe?" Ino asked a little taken aback by the scream coming from the tied up man.

 

"My form of interrogation, since no one was willing to help me," Naruto with his eyes closed as he focused. After a moment, the ninja stopped screaming and just laid there looking dazed with Naruto's hand still on his head, when he got everything he needed, he stood up and took back his hand. However, once he had his hand away from the ninja's forehead, a ghostly outline of the ninja's body came away with the blond's hand, it disappeared once the whole shape of the body was revealed. 

 

"W-what was that!" Sakura screeched after the ghost body of the ninja disappeared, everyone else was shocked by this as well.

 

"It's one of my...abilities," Naruto said as he started walking again, "come on, let's get going, it's going to get dark soon."

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued...


	8. Wave 3

"Wait a minute Naruto, I still need to question that ninja and talk to our client," Kakashi said while holding onto Naruto's shoulder, preventing him from moving any further.

 

"I already did that, Kakashi, and I also know our client's situation, there really isn't anything we could do out on the road. Not while we're in the open," Naruto counted as he turned back to the one-eyed jonin.

 

"Oh, is that so? Well, mind if I check your work? You are only a genin, after all, I should make sure that you didn't miss something important," Kakashi stated as he let go of Naruto so he could walk over to the downed missing ninja. Naruto folded his arms and watched the jonin walk over to the tied up man, but made no move to stop him what so ever. Ino and Sakura were sending him smug looks that said 'you couldn't do a better job than Sasuke-Kun if you tried', he's not a mind reader, but he just knows that this was what they both had to be thinking right now. Yet, the whiskered blond did not care what they thought of him. When Kakashi made it over to the body of the missing ninja, he got close to his body and tried to see if he could wake up the man from his seemingly shocked state. But the man wouldn't wake up, in fact, he made no movements at all, Kakashi wondered about that and put two fingers to the man's neck to check for a puls, he didn't feel one. Shocked that a genin could do such a thing to a  _chunin_ such as the Demon Brothers, especially on their first time out of the village, Kakashi could not help but be stunned, "he's dead." A heavy silence filled the air around them at Kakashi's words.

 

"He's what?" Sakura asked, she was shaking as the news sunk in, she turned her head towards Naruto and pointed at him, "m-my mom w-was r-right about you." She said shaking still as fear filled her eyes, "y-y-you ARE A DEMON!!" She screeched staring down the blond male.

 

Naruto scuffed, "if I'm a demon, then why haven't I killed you all yet?" He asked her, eyes staring holes into her pink covered head, Ino, as well as everyone was looking between Naruto and Sakura. This was a real eye-opener for the Yamanaka, she didn't know what to think, unlike Sakura, she's been out of the village for missions before and already had her first kill along with Shikamaru and Chouji. She didn't know if team seven had done the same just yet, but judging by Sakura's reaction, this clearly was her first time out and seeing someone day in front of her so soon too. She couldn't help but wonder if this was how she acted when she first saw someone gets killed in front of her, her reaction was but a blur to her still. "Sakura, did you think we were just going on a field trip or something?" Naruto asked, bringing everyone out of their thoughts.

 

"What?" Sakura asked as she remembered that she was still sharing fearfully at Naruto, she replayed his words in her head. "What, no! This is a mission baka! How in the hell could you think that this-"

 

Naruto cut her off, "I said 'you', not 'I', Sakura. Maybe you should really listen before you speak," he stated as he shifted his weight to one foot. "Look, I don't know what was going through your head during the eight years we spent in school, but clearly you must have missed something severely important to think that a C rank mission would be bloodless. Up until now, you have not even lifted not one finger when fighting bandits and robbers, you only stood in front of the client cheering on Sasuke while the rest of us did all the work. Honestly, look at the rest of us and then look at you."

 

Sakura looked at everyone in turn. First, she saw how Ino's clothes looked like they had just come from her bag, there was a scratch on the side of her cheek that was a few days old, and the makeup she was wearing when they left the village was long gone. Sasuke was in the same boat, except for the makeup part, and so were the rest of the guys with her. The Jonins didn't have any scratches on them per say, but everyone looked as if they had been sleeping outside for a while. Next, she looked at herself, her clothes were nicely pressed, her hair was well combed, she was wearing makeup and perfume, all in all, Sakura looked as if she was ready to go out on a date while she was on the mission. She wasn't sure what Naruto was trying to say to her, "what? Are you saying that I shouldn't have cleaned myself up a little while on the road baka?" Sakura asked with the usual fangirl mindset she wanted to look good for her crush.

 

Naruto shook her head, "no, no, I'm just saying that you're weak."

 

"Naruto," Kakashi said in a threatening tone, not that he thought the blond was wrong or anything, but they couldn't afford a fight right now.

 

"Oh shut it, Hatake, I know you agree with me," Naruto stated without care. He turned his eyes back to the pink girl, "you are weak, Sakura, and you chase after a taken man. You dress in tight, form-fitting clothes that will enable you to run properly or fast, you wear makeup that takes away time from our mission, and you wear perfume that would give away our location to the enemy."

 

"But it's only a little!" Sakura said in her defense.

 

"A little too much," Naruto countered, "a ninja should be undetectable, that means no sound, no sight, no  _smell._ We are meant to go unnoticed by the masses, a forgettable face in the crowd, but look at you," he pointed at her. "I could maybe forgive your hair, but your clothes is another thing. Not only are they tight, but they are brightly colored if we're hopping through trees you would be a red dot, a target to look at. Even if a human can't smell you from a mile away, a dog can, a rabbit can,  _animals_ can."

 

"Naruto," Kakashi tried again, slightly more threatening than before.

 

"And I don't even need to start on how your training must have gone because you didn't have any," Naruto continued as if Kakashi didn't say anything. Everyone else was just watching and listening to how Naruto tore into Sakura with a fine tooth comb, "in the academy you only placed the top of the class because you studied a lot. What about training in taijutsu? Ninjutsu? Anything that requires little to no physical effort, you excelled in it, but you are weak, and the only way for you to become a ninja is to rely on others. You want Sasuke to come and save you, but guess what: he doesn't give a shit about you, do you Sasuke?" 

 

Everyone turned to stare at Sasuke now, Sakura was on the edge of tears but her eyes held hope that her crush would come to her defense instead of telling her the truth. She knew the truth, but she chooses to ignore it thinking that as long as she had her crush by her side, sticking up for her, she would be fine. Thinking that she could get through anything and then prove herself to him when the time came. However, her world came crashing down around her when Sasuke spoke. "I hate to admit this, but Naruto's right," Sasuke said begrudgingly. "You're nothing but a fangirl that chases after me, trying to fool yourself that you're a real ninja when you're only playing pretend. If I had it my way, you would have still been in the academy now." Everyone cringed at the truth of the matter, but they knew it had to be said, if not now, when Sakura still had some time to grow, then when?

 

Naruto scuffed when he saw Sakura's fall from her eyes, "like I said, we've got to go, it's going to be dark soon." He turned around and took two steps before Kakashi's hand was gripping his shoulder once more, "what is it this time, Hatake?"

 

"Apologies, now," Kakashi stated a little-pissed off.

 

Naruto didn't even turn around, "sorry..." he started making Sakura glare at him, but feel smug that he was getting in trouble for what he said to her. Naruto sensed her "that I had to tell you the truth," he wrenched his shoulder away from Kakashi and continued walking. 

 

Shikamaru was the next to start walking, knowing full well that Sakura had it coming. He would have told her himself, but it was too troublesome, letting Naruto say it was much better than him because then Ino would get on him for trying to 'act cool' or whatever. Chouji left with Shikamaru, both of them said nothing, not even looking back towards the pinkette to see her cry. Ino took one look at Sasuke and for the first time since the mission started, didn't see him as her crush, but maybe more as a serious ninja that doesn't want to play around with a girl who isn't serious about the job description as he was. She was sure that she was more serious about the job than Sakura was, so she stopped wearing makeup, but still wanted to look nice for the Uchiha. But then she heard what Naruto said and was now in deep thought as she automatically followed her two teammates away from the area, Sasuke followed them out, with Tazuna also following them. The bridge builder, while everything was going on, was sure that he would have gotten killed when the Demon Brothers came up from the puddle, but after seeing what the blond with the whiskers did with his friends, he was reassured that he was in good hands. Even though they were still children. Asuma looked back at Kakashi for a moment before taking out another cigaret from his pocket, he was about to light it up when he noticed the white tiger dragging the burned up body of the first Demon Brother duo into the forest, he looked over to where the second body was, or would have been. It seemed that the tiger had already pulled that body into the first with him while they were talking. Asuma really didn't want to know what would be done to those two bodies, so he lit his cigaret and carried on with the trip, Kakashi followed them all after a while of stewing in his own anger for a bit. 

* * *

**Sometime later**

 

The group came across a man in a motorboat that was meant to take them across the lake. "Tazuna, these are your ninja?" The man asked Tazuna nodded, "there's too many of them to all fit in my boat, and I don't want to risk making a second trip across the water."

 

"It's okay sir," Naruto said as he turned towards the others, "how many of you can water walk?" Only Asuma raised their hands, he didn't bother getting an answer from Kakashi because he wasn't listening to a word he said. He assumed that he did though, it would be kind of funny if someone was able to make jonin without knowing at least that much. He then made some hand signs and summoned another white tiger on the surface of the water that was next to the boat, the tiger was about the size of a baby elephant.

 

"Whatcha need Boss?" The tiger asked.

 

"We need to get across the river to complete a mission, you mind giving us a hand?" Naruto asked the tiger.

 

"Sure thing, I assume you will need more help than just that though, right?" The tiger asked while raising the equivalent of an eyebrow, Naruto nodded, "very well, you know the price of our service."

 

"Sure thing, I've already got it set up for you and the others when we get to Tazuna's house," Naruto said pointing a thumb towards Tazuna. The tiger nodded and laid on top of the water so that some people could climb onto his back. Naruto turned back to the others, "okay Sasuke, Sakura, you two can get in the boat along with Kakashi and/or Asuma." He gestured to the tiger, "this is Pie, he can carry up to four people at a time, so the rest of us can just stay on his back for the rest of the way."

 

"Awe, his fur is so pretty, can I ride him?" Sakura asked.

 

Pie turned to see who spoke and came across the pinkette, "sorry, but I'm allergic to flamingoes, we never get along," he stated matter-of-factly.

 

Sakura puffed up her cheeks and was about to yell her displeasure at the large tiger when Naruto slapped another silence seal over her mouth this time. "Now, now Sakura, we have to hurry over to the other side of the water or else we might get attacked while we stand her," the whiskered male said after activating the seal so that the pinkette couldn't make a sound. The man in the boat and Tazuna both breath a sigh of relief to see that they wouldn't be found out by the enemy so soon. "Right then, Ino, Shika, Chouji, you can go ahead and get on Pie while I scout ahead."

 

"Hold up, you?" Kakashi said for the first time since they reach the docks, "you can't scout, you're just a-"

 

"A genin, I know Hatake, you do not have to inform me of my rank every time you speak. Sheesh, it's like talking to a broken record or something," Naruto commented as he helped Ino and Chouji get on Pie's back first before helping Shika on last.

 

Kakashi scuffed, "well how do you plan to scout ahead? I haven't taught you how to walk on water yet," he said smugly but still somewhat lazily.

 

"You haven't taught you genin how to walk on water yet?" Asuma asked a little surprised by that as he got into the boat with a brooding Sasuke and a jealous fangirl, jealous because she couldn't ride the tiger and feel his fur.

 

Before Kakashi could reply, the boatman spoke up, "ssh, I thought you guys were professional ninja not the casting crew for gossip girls." He said drawing a couple chuckles and giggles from Naruto and the rest of team ten, and Pie chuckled as well. "Can you hurry up so we can go? The longer we spend out here, the more likely it is for Gato to send out thugs that will catch up!' He hissed at Kakashi.

 

The cyclops got into the boat with a questioning look in his one eye, "Gato? You mean the business tycoon?"

 

"Whoa, Hatake, you don't miss a beat do you?" Naruto said sarcastically as he walked in between the space between Pie and the boat, "I'm going on ahead. I'll wait for you guys on the other side," he continued walking ahead until he was covered by the fog over the water. Kakashi wanted to say something as the blond walked away, but was too busy wondering who taught the blond how to walk on water in the first place when he hasn't even taught his students how to walk up a tree yet.

 

"Well, I guess we can just get a move on then," Tazuna said as he watched the blond boy walked into the mist. He turned to the boatman, "thanks again for picking us up, I know you're risking a lot to do this," the man nodded and turned on the both while Pie was already up and following Naruto into the mist.

* * *

**With Naruto**

 

Naruto was the first one to reach land. When he did, he made a few shadow clones that would move further on ahead of him to see if there were anymore traps waiting for them. A few minutes went by and a few of his clones popped, showing him that they had engaged an enemy ninja and his accomplice. He got the memories from his clones and saw that the enemy ninja was a tall man with bandages around the lower half of his face much like Kakashi, and wore cow print arm warmers and grey pin-stripe pants with a large sword strapped to his back. His accomplice was a boy with long, silky black hair wearing dark green and brown clothing and had a Kiri hunter ninja mask on his face. One of his clones also noted that the boy seemed to like painting his nails a dark green color, the information was irrelevant towards the fight, but the only noticed it when the boy took out two zebones from his pouch just as one of his other clones were about to deliver the finishing blow. Naruto found this information to be truly interesting and was about to head off to meet up with his clones while they still last, but then the mystery boy threw his zebones right into the side of the man's neck, in a spot that he noticed was none lethal, putting him in a death like state. Then the hunter ninja showed himself to his clones and took the man's body away after telling his clones a fake story about how he was tracking the man for a while and they only helped weakened him for him. Some of his clones wanted to take down the hunter ninja, but a near silent signal from the original Naruto made them stop. Once the hunter ninja was gone, along with the older man's body, Naruto's clones started dispelling themselves in groups of two and three so Naruto would get the full story behind their encounter and also learn more on the enemy. 

 

**Flashback**

 

A few minutes earlier

With Naruto's clones

 

_Naruto had made a total of twenty-three clones to do the scouting, he made ten of them reinforced just in case, and the other ten were his special variation. One of the reinforced clones gathered some of the other clones together and made a plan._

 

_"Okay guys, I have a plan, since everyone else is going through the woods to look for traps, I say we take the path." Said the first clone that will be referred to as Alpha._

 

_"The path eh? I see, so what's the plan, hide in plain sight?" Asked one of the special clones that will now be referred to as Bata._

 

_Alpha nodded, "yes, some of us will henge into the boss's team and one of the special clones will turn into the client." He explained, they already put up a sound barrier so that any enemy ninja in the area would no be able to hear them. "If we can make it to the village without running into the enemy, then we will have successfully cleared a path for the boss and his team to go through. But if we don't, then we'll have some of us dispell so that the boss will know."_

 

_The others agreed with this plan because they were basically all of one mind and knew the best way to plan things out, so it really only took about a minute to plan things through. So, with everything said an done, Alpha transformed into Kakashi, Bata transformed into Tazuna, and two other clones that were with them transformed into Sasuke and Sakura. "Let's just stick with this, for now, we wouldn't want the enemy to think that they would need a backup so soon in the game," Bata stated as he looked around at the remaining clones, "let's have one of the other special clones play the boss. I'm thinking a fire elemental maybe?"_

 

_The other clones nodded and the four of them started making their way down the path, making sure to sure the elements around them to change their chakra signatures. It's a precaution they learned to do so that the enemy forces didn't sense the same signature coming at them and then conclude that they were clones before seeing them. Not even two minutes into their walk did they hear the subtle pop of one of the clones that were using the trees as covers to find traps, they assumed that they had spotted the enemy. Another moment later and another popping sound was subtly heard by them, this time a little further down the trail and on their left now. A few more steps in that direction and they heard the bushes moving, so the unchanged Naruto clone played the part of 'green genin' and threw a Kuni at the bush, only the reveal a frightened bunny. The Sakura henge clone fussed at the Naruto clone like the real Sakura would, but it was all to cover the fact that they knew they were being watched by the enemy. They sensed the sword coming from almost a mile away and ducked in time when Alpha/Kakashi tod them to. Out of the bushes came a shirtless man dress in cow print arm warmers and grey pin-stripped pants standing atop the giant sword that was embedded into the tree. They all looked up at the man to realize two things:_

  1. _The man was a missing ninja from Kiri_
  2. _This man so happened to be Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Bloody Mist_



_They did not expect him to be here in Wave, but then again, who said things were meant to be predictable?_

 

_"Zabuza Momochi, A ranked missing ninja of Kiri," the Kakashi look-alike started, "what are you doing here?"_

 

_Zabuza looked down at the gathered four, there was something about them that seemed a bit...off to him, but he didn't know what. All he knew was that the target was right there in front of him and was guarded by a team of genin and one jonin. It seems that Gato's control over Wave has gotten so bad that the people had to lie about its ranking. However, another thing that puzzled Zabuza was the fact that these brats had gotten this far with the client in one piece, where the Demon Brothers? Then it clicked for Kiri missing ninja, the Demon brothers must have been defeated, but how, they were only gen-wait, Zabuza smiled under his bandages. "My, my, what an honor, Copy Cat Kakashi, otherwise known as Kakashi of the Sharingan, what a pleasure it is to bump into you here of all places." Zabuza looked over the genin with Kakashi, he had expected to see at least one of them flinch from the Ki (Killing Intent) that he was giving off, but no one flinches, not even the supposed target. Suddenly his instincts were telling him that something wasn't right, but he ignored them for the moment and got ready to fight, he got his signature jutsu ready and blanketed the area they were in. "Heart, lungs, spine..." he went into his usual care practices, but when he was done talking, he did not sense any fear coming from them, he couldn't see anyone shaking, no one was afraid! Now Zabuza was worried, he became even more so when he heard a voice behind him._

 

_"The Demon of the Mist, scared? Now I really have seen everything!" Zabuza turned into to see one of Naruto's clones behind him with a Kuni already coming down on him. He replaced himself with a log just in time wondering if he had somehow mistaken the ranks of these brats. The clone disappeared in the fog, shocking Zabuza, "what's the matter with you Zabuza? I thought you were going to kill us, did something change your mind?" The clone asked as a volley of Kuni started rainning down from all around Zabuza._

 

_"Damn it, what's with thess brats?" Zabuza asked as he once again replaced himself with another near-by log, he didn't like how this kid was taking the upper hand when he was supposed to have. He did a couple of hand signs and send in some of his water clones to attack the bridge builder when he thought that the real threat was far enough away from his teammates to help. The Zabuza water clone came up behind the team of genin, noting that the sensei was nowhere near them, and made to strike them all down to get to the bridge builder, but he got a nasty surprised waiting for him. When the water clone raised its blade up, the Sakura clone stabbed it through with a Kuni before savagely ripping it out of the clones side, actually dispelling the water clone. Then the team protecting Tazuna disappeared, along with their client, further shocking Zabuza, he was getting frustrated and decided to thicken the jutsu so that they couldn't see a thing. Too bad for him that Naruto was also trained to fight in conditions that took away his sight._

 

_Zabuza closed his eyes and felt out his targets chakra, thinking that he would be able to sneak up on them again since they wouldn't be able to see him again. He sent another water clone out to find them once he found his target not too away way from him. The orignial Zabuza then laid a trap for the jonin he suspected would come after him, he wasn't disappointed as 'Kakashi' fell right into his trap when he tried to attack him from behind and Zabuza dodged the attack and sent his out towards him, almost cutting him in half. But the one-eyed clone sank down into the water where Zabuza trapped him in a Water Prison jutsu, "ha, what are you going to do now, I have your sensei," Zabuza gloated, "you can either give me the bridge builder now and live a little while longer. Or..." He paused for dramatic effect, "I can just kill you all right now."_

 

_Sadly, Zabuza didn't get the response he wanted, he looked over to where Naruto's team was protecting their client, only to see them all smirking at him through the mist. "You can do whatever you think is best, Zabuza, but in the end, the only ones that will leave this clearing alive will me us," Alpha said as he made a hand sign. When he did, three Naruto's came out of the surrounding forest and ran towards Zabuza, running on water to get to him. Two come from both his front and back and the last one came at him from his other side, they came at him fast with speed that he's never seen before. He had no time to dodge them, so he no choice but sing down into the water or jump into the air to get away from them, either way, he had to let go of the jutsu or these brats might catch him. So Zabuza jumped into the air to escape the two coming towards his back and his front, but the third one used the first two to match Zabuza's height, Zabuza's eyes widened as he saw the clone made a hand sign and then blew up inches from his face. Zabuza was sent flying backward by the burst, there were some flames that burned his chest, but before he could land, the two other clones met him and also exploded, one with a burst of wind and the other in a burst of water that surrounded Zabuza like his Water Prison jutsu. The water encased Zabuza landed on the other side of the water's surface, somewhat unconscious._

 

_"Let's finish this," Alpha said as he got out of the water and walked over to Zabuza while doing hand signs of his own. He was about to deliver a powerful water jutsu that would no doubt end the fight, the water holding Zabuza's body in place dissipated as Alpha got closer. Yet, before he could finish the hand signs, Alpha caught the glint of two needle-like weapons coming at his target and stopped his jutsu, the needle hit their target and a boy in a hunter ninja mask came out into the clearing._

 

_"Thank you for weakening him, I have been chasing Zabuza Momochi for the past few days. I will take it from here," the boy said in a cool voice before picking up Zabuza's body and disappearing with it in a shushin._

 

_They stared at the spot the boy was just in with Zabuza's body before Alpha turned back towards Bata. They shared a nod with each other, "everyone listens up, finish your task and then dispel in teams of two or three so the boss can sort the memories out evenly._

 

_"Hai!!" The other clones stated as they started finishing up their task and then dispelling as ordered. Alpha and Bata dispelled once they got a confirmation that they were heard._

 

**Flashback end**

 

Naruto sorted through the memories that his clones gave him and were able to replay his findings just into for Pie and the others to find him. Once he meets up with the group, he told them that the road was clear for them to pass, Asuma, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke all seem to be skeptical and disbelieving of him but put on with the mission nonetheless. Once everyone was walking down the path completing the first part of their mission, Naruto turned to Pie, he made a few hand signs to the tiger and he nodded. Things were about to get interesting.

 

 

To be continued...


	9. Wave 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long week so far,

Arriving at the bridge builders home, his daughter answered the door and a scream was heard from nearly one village away.

 

"I-i-i-it's a giant tiger white tiger!!" Came Tsunami's scream.

 

"Oh, don't worry, Tsunami, it won't bite! Why I traveled several miles with it already and it hasn't tried to eat me yet, hahaha. It's a super cool tiger If I do say so myself!" Tazuna commented, trying to soothe his daughter's fears.

 

"Maybe that's because you're already so old that it knows you won't taste so good anymore!" Tsunami shot back from behind the front door.

 

Tazuna went to sulk in the corner, "why doesn't an old man like me get any respect anymore?"

 

Naruto scratched his head, he sort of expected this situation, it wasn't really all that avoidable. He sighed and turned to Pie, "do you mind transforming into your other form for me until we need to fight?" He asked, Pie sighed but said nothing more and transformed. His form started to shrink down until he was no taller than a cub, he turned to Naruto with an expectant look on his face, Naruto frowned back at him. Their staring contest lasted until Sakura decided to speak.

 

"Would you stop staring at it like that, baka! if you can't take care of your pats while we're out here, you might as well give it to someone who can!" Sakura shouted at him, she then turned lovey-dovey eyes on Sasuke, "right, Sasuke-kun?" She blinked her eyelashes as if they were long and beautiful.

 

Naruto turned bored eyes to Sakura before turning back to Pie. "You know, you're getting to be pretty spoiled, right?"

 

"Hey, if I have to be the same size as a plushy, you might as well hold me like one." Pie retorted with a smirk, "c'mon, you know you want to. My fur is the ultimate soft."

 

More glaring between summons and summoner ensues.

 

"Fine, I'll carry you," Naruto rolled his eyes as he walked over the Pie.

 

Pie smirked, "I knew you would come around," he said as Naruto picked up.

 

Naruto's frown grew deeper as he glared at Pie's smug face. He walked over to the door where Tsunami had closed the door once she noticed the tiger had made a move. Naruto knocked on the door and lifted Pie up to Tsunami's eye-level, Tsunami opened the door slowly and stared into Pie's bright green eyes. "Be cute," he whispered to Pie, the tiger paused for a moment before smiling and started to pure cutely, Tsunami opened the door wider and looked at the tiger. She smiled and started to calm down a little before opening the door some more.

 

"Hm, well...since he's not so big anymore...I-I guess he can come in now." Tsunami said as she opened the door all the way and allowed the others inside, "oh, I'm sorry, I guess I got carried away." She said embarrassed, she looked around at the group of ninjas and scratched the back of his head, "I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem like we will be able to sleep all of you comfortably under one roof...We weren't expecting so many of you to come, haha, so I guess dad really came through on his promise to the village after all, huh."

 

"Huh? His promise to the village?" Ino asked walking over to Tsunami, "what promise would that be?"

 

"Hm, um, well," Tsunami thought as she remembered what her father had said before leaving the village to get the ninja. "Well, I don't know if you heard this already, but our village has been under the rule of a really bad guy named Gato."

 

"Yeah, we heard that story from Tazuna already," Shikamaru yawned.

 

"What? And you guys still came even though my father lied to you?" Tsunami asked before turning a glare onto her father who nervously laughed and backed away from his daughter. Tsunami sighed and turned back to the ninjas, "I'm sorry that he had to lie to get you guys here, but nonetheless, we are happy that you're here." Tsunami bowed to show them respect, "anyways, my father made a promise that he would build a great bridge for the village so that we can get out from under Gato's thumb and be free again. However, what you, and also my father, may not know now since he was away, is that things with Gat have gotten much worse."

 

"What?! What has that rat bastard done now!" Tazuna asked angrily, he really didn't like the way that Gato was running things. It boiled his blood every time the very name of the man that took away his grandson's role model. That's why he wants to build the bridge so badly as his way of getting back at Gato while bringing his village back to life at the same time.

 

Tsunami looked down at the ground, "just after you left, Gato's men came into town by hundreds and started to take women from their homes. First, they started with just women that looked young and had something to lose, some were even pregnant!" She clenched her fist when she remembered the people that were taken, "but then...the escalated to taking children too."

 

This news made the whole room go quite as they realized the severity of the situation. "If you don't mind me asking, Tsunami, how old were these children that they took?" Naruto asked seriously.

 

Tsunami looked up at Naruto for a moment as he frowns got deeper, "they were about your age." The genin was shocked at that, and the jonin shared a look, "the youngest one that they took was no more than three or four years old." Tsunami got choked up and could barely contain her tears as she tried her best to continue and be understood through her sobs. "The last one they took was my son!"

 

Tazuna's eyes were wide, "what? When did this happen? I should have been here! WHY ARE THEY EVEN DOING THIS!?" The elder bridge builder was frustrated by the situation. How could a man be so corrupt?

 

"I-it h-happened yesterday m-morning. I was looking for him since he wasn't in his bed that morning when I went to go check up on him. I looked all over for him for nearly an hour before finding him down by the river...but before I could go over to him, there were already a bunch of Gato's men surrounding him. I didn't know what to do, I was going to rush in and try to save him, b-but then someone hit me in the back of my neck and I blacked out." Tsunami sobbed through heavy tears, "b-by the t-time I w-woke up again, I-I-Inari was g-g-gone!" She buried her head in her hands and wept for her son that had been kidnapped. He father came over to her and hugged her close, trying to comfort her the best he could, when Tsunami got some of her sobs under control, she looked up to see Naruto standing right in front of her.

 

"Miss Tsunami, I'm sorry for your loss..." he started before looking her in the eyes with conviction. "But I can promise you right now that I will get whoever those men where that took your son away from you and make sure they pay dearly for their crimes." He held out his hand to her, "you have my word on that."

 

Tsunami looked at Naruto through watery eyes, she could see how sure he was of that fact, and deep down inside herself, she felt like he actually meant it. She didn't know how, but she knew that he would not go back on his word. Before Tsunami could reply, Kakashi spoke up, "that's all nice and all, Naruto, but have you forgotten why we are here?" Kakashi asked in a bored voice, "we're here to make sure that the bridge builder is safe while he finishes building the bridge he started on before. Our only mission is to make sure that he stays alive until then and then leave since we already completed the first part of our mission, that is the only thing left for us to do. No ifs, ands or buts about it, got it?"

 

Naruto turned to Kakashi with a hard glare, "that is not our only mission, Hatake. What about the bridge builder's family?"

 

"Even though it is sad that something happened to the bridge builders grandson, there is nothing much that we can do about it," Kakashi replied as he took out Make out paradise from his vest pocket. "You can't go around helping everyone even if you want to. There are priorities in life that you have to think about first and you need to focus on that, or else you will become overwhelmed in his field of work."

 

Assume placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, Kakashi looked back at him through the corner of his eye, "Kakashi. Maybe you should discuss this situation with your s-"

 

"HATAKE!" Both jonin jumped and stood at the ready for orders when they authoritative voice that felt so much like they were about to be addressed by their superiors. However, when they looked to see who called out Kakashi's name, they almost relaxed their position when they saw Naruto. Almost. They become more rigid when they felt the strength of his killing intent bare down on them, mostly directing it at Kakashi. The killing intent that Naruto was giving off was as if someone was drowning them in a wave of air. It's like drowning in water, but since it's air, they felt like they couldn't breathe. They weren't suffocating or anything like that, it was just that the air around them felt so thick and heavy that they couldn't breath normally...and it sort of scared them that this type of feeling could affect them so much. What's more, it was coming from a genin! Adding on the superior aura that was oozing out of him at the moment as he stared them down made them feel like they were the genin and not him. As for Naruto, he was sick of Kakashi always talking down to him as if he was nothing more than a spoiled child if anything, Kakashi was the one acting like the child in Naruto's eyes, so then....why shouldn't he be treated like one. Naruto walked over to the two jonin and the rest of the genin fell away from the two as the blond got closer, they could feel the intensity of his anger and didn't want it to be redirected. He stood in front of the two adults like a Kage and glared, "Kakashi Hatake, you have disappointed me."

 

For some reason, even though Kakashi knew he was the adult here, felt bad. Like he had let down his own father in some way. But he shook his head,  _"no, he's just a genin, barely out of the academy in the last two months and this is how he talks to his superior officer? Why I aught t-"_

 

"Hatake!" Naruto commanded the silver-haired man's attention and Kakashi's back was stiff as a board once more.

 

"Yes!" Kakashi said on instinct. Then mentally cursed himself for doing so.

 

Naruto suffers at him as he started to pet Pie on the head, said tiger started to pure since he was that spoiled in this form. "Up until this moment, I held out hope for you and this team. Hope that none of you would stand in my way and try to ruin my chance at realizing my one true dream of being a ninja. But over the past few months, the only thing you have taught me is how to work in the village with a team that does nothing but belittle me and calls me names...and for that, you have disappointed me greatly." Now Kakashi felt even more disappointed in himself, but he wasn't sure why. "So," Naruto went on, "since I don't see you as a person that is worth my interest as a sensei, I will be considering this mission as the head leader and promote Asuma Sarutobi to be second in command. Seeing as I can't take over his team without him being injured and also the fact that he already has a more capable team than team seven."

 

"HEY! TAKE THAT BACK, I AM WAY MORE CAPABLE THAN INO-PIG!!" Sakura screamed hearing everyone's ears.

 

Naruto turned to her, Ino was about to reply, when Naruto spoke up, "Ino, relax. Let me handle my teammate, you deal with yours." She looked between Naruto and Sakura, then Kakashi and Assume, her sensei nodded, which sort of threw her through a loop before nodding herself. She stepped back a little and Naruto turned back to the two joining, "now then, as I was saying, I will not allow this mission to fail because one person thought that they were the best and wanted to do things their own way. I can't have that and that is not what a team is all about. So from this moment forth, like I said before, I will be in charge, anything that will affect everyone on this team will go through me first. I have already come up with three plans to successfully do this mission and go home safely with everyone happy in the end. If you have anything to say, say it to my face, otherwise, don't speak at all."

 

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, dobe? If anyone's going to be in charge, it's going to be me," Sasuke said with a thumb pointed at himself. Sakura fangirled over how "cool" Sasuke was supposedly being. 

 

Naruto ignored him.

 

"Anyways, since I'll be taking over, I'm going to need t make sure that the team is well rested and taken care of so that they can do their job," Naruto said as he turned away from the sensei's and walked back over to Tsunami and Tazuna as he continued to pet Pie gently. "So, how many rooms are there in the whole house?"

 

"HEY! DON'T IGNORE KAKASHI SENSEI!!" Sakura yelled.

 

Tsunami sniffed and wiped her eyes, "there are only four bedrooms and two bathrooms, but the fourth room is a little small. I'm afraid it won't fit all of you," she explained. "Oh, but you're all welcomed to use the living room over there to sleep in at night or whenever you need to rest."

 

Naruto thought about it, "hm, well, it'll have to do then." He thought about it a little more before nodding his head, "yeah, that'll work."

 

Pie looked up at him, "are you thinking..."

 

"Yep," he nodded.

 

Ino and the rest looked at Naruto curiously, "what are you talking about Naruto? Do you have a plan on how we should sleep?"

 

Naruto smiled at her, "you'll have to wait and see. I promise that what I'm going to do will be way cool," he directed everyone to the center of the room and told them to stay out of they. Seeing as how they didn't have anything else to do right now, they obeyed his request, they wondered what he would do and figured that waiting and watching might be the best way to find out. Kakashi only did as he was told because he thought that he was going to get a laugh out of seeing Naruto embarrass himself in front of everyone, so he managed to get Sakura and Sasuke to keep quiet with that idea before joining the others in the center of the dining room. Once everyone was in the center, he turned to face away from the others and looked up at the ceiling with his eyes closed. He breathes in deeply held his breath, then let it out long and slow, he looked down to Pie, "you ready?"

 

Pie jumped out of Naruto's arms and onto his shoulders, "yep. Ready when you are."

 

Shikamaru opened his mouth to ask something, but then he closed it and his eyes widened as he watched Naruto. Naruto's body started to glow brightly before a blinding light filled the room, the others closed their eyes because they couldn't see anything around them for a few seconds until the glowing dulled. When they looked again, they saw the walls, floor, ceiling, everything around them was moving, shaking, and changing around them. They looked up to see that the ceiling was getting higher, the room got wider, everything around them seemed to be growing, the whole house made sounds of things being moved, stretched, pop. Right before their own eyes, the house was transformed into something new onto itself. By the time thatNaruto stopped glowing, the room that they were in was completely different from before. Everyone looked on in awe as they spread out to take in the new extent of the house. It was already clear that the whole place was much, much bigger than before, however, the biggest change would be the overall design and structure of the house. Stepping into the kitchen, Tsunami found that it was nearly five times bigger than it used to be with a fully stocked fridge that was overflowing with food, and a large walk-in pantry that was in the same condition. There were more cupboards and draws pots, pans, knives, and other cooking utensils, and a door that led out to a brand new patty-o that surrounded the whole house, which hadn't been there before. Tazuna checked the living room, which had been pushed back to make a regular sized hallway, to see that it was now ten times bigger than it used to be with a lot more furniture, including; two couches, three love-seats, and two recliners, a long coffee table, a flatscreen tv, and a regular low table that was surrounded by several mats to sit on. Along the walls were tall bookshelves that nearly surrounded the whole room, at the far side of the room was a door that led outside. On the neighboring wall, there was a doorway that leads into another hallway where there was another room that looked a lot like a formal dining room rather than informal like the one they had before. On the other side of the formal dining room was a second hallway with the kitchen door a few feet away. There was a door next to the dining room, it led into another room that looked like a library with some computers, like a real library. There was another door at the very end of the hall that also led outside. No one had gone upstairs or to the back of the house yet, so the changes to the rest of the house and the surrounding area was let unknown for now.

 

Naruto turned around and looked up at them, "hey, let's get some sleep." He said tiredly, he took a step and almost fell over, Pie jumped off of him before he landed. Luckily enough, Chouji managed to catch him, Naruto looked up at him with a smile, "thanks Chouji."

 

Chouji smiled, "no problem, man."

 

Shikamaru walked over to Naruto and picked up Pie, he pets the tiger with a light touch before looking at Naruto again with a frown. "Hey, Naruto, why'd you do it? You know making this big of a change takes up a lot of your energy...after using so much chakra before, I know you must be tired by now." 

 

Naruto chuckled, "I know you aren't used to me using magic on this scale, but try not to make a big deal of it, 'kay, Shika-chan?" He gave Shikamaru a big smile with his eyes, Shikamaru blushed and looked away from him. "Anyways," he got serious again once Tazuna and Tsunami come back to the rest of the group. "Since I've already fixed up the house so that everyone can sleep comfortably and have plenty of food to eat, I think it'll be best for me to get some rest now. So I'll be turning in first, goodnight," he looked over to Chouji, "you mind?"

 

Chouji shook his head, "it's the lest that I can do," he lifted Naruto to his feet and helped him walk away from the others. "You'll have to show me around, it looks like you changed up everything about this place before we could even get used to it," he said.

 

Naruto yawned tiredly, "yeah, sorry, just go up the stairs and put me in one of the rooms up there so I can sleep. I don't care which one," he said and fell asleep.

 

Shikamaru watched as Chouji carried/dragged Naruto over to the next room to find the stairs. He turned around to face Tazuna and Tsunami, "I apologize for my friend changing up your house so much so suddenly, it's a drag, I know, but you can think of this a sort of a gift and an extension of his promise."

 

Tsunami looked at Shikamaru with a confused look on his face, "an...extention?"

 

"Yeah, Naruto wanted to give you something that would show you that he meant what he said. I know this seems like a bit much, but this is usually his way," Shikamaru bowed to them and started walking away.

 

"Wait!" Shikamaru turned around to see Sasuke staring at him, it looked like his emotions were confused and it seemed like he wasn't sure of what to think. Shikamaru waited for him to say something, "does..." he started, "does Naruto really have a lot of power, enough...enough to change an entire house?"

 

The silence stretched out throughout the room. After some time went by, Shikamaru turned back to following Chouji, "that's not for me to say."

 

**To be continued...**


	10. Wave 5: For the bridge

**The next day**

 

Naruto woke up to the sound of chirping birds and a growling stomach. Getting up slowly, he looked around the room he was in, he sat in a queen sized bed with a canopy of light greens and blue curtains hanging around it. The bed sheets were the same color, next to him, he saw Shikamaru curled up with Pie still in his arms. He smiled at the sight, he heard his stomach call out to him again, he sighed and got out of bed to do his morning stretches. Seeing as how he had taken over the joint mission yesterday, he had to make sure that things went smoothly, so he needed to get out of bed and check on everyone else. When he was done stretching, he turned to see Shikamaru just waking up searching for something, "good morning, sleepyhead, did you sleep well?" He asked as he sat back on the bed with a warm smile on his face.

 

Shikamaru rubbed his eyes and nodded his head, "yeah." He looked up at Naruto, the window behind him was letting a ray of sunshine shine throughout the room, the light hitting Naruto's back gave him a glow that made him look like a god. Golden blond hair shined like a field of wheat, bright blue eyes looked like a clear sky, muscles highlighted by the golden rays shined on tanned skin...he blushed, "u-uh, Naruto. H-how long have you been away?" He asked as he sat up properly.

 

"Not long," he reached a hand over to Shikamaru and pushed back a stray strand of hair behind his ear. Since Shikamaru just woke up, he didn't realize that his hair wasn't held up in its usual ponytail, he let his thumb brush against the Nara's plump bottom lip. "You look good like this."

 

"Huh?" Shikamaru was lost in the sensation of Naruto's touch, it was so warm and soft.

 

"You're hair," Naruto clarified, "I like it better when it's down." Shikamaru blushed even harder, Naruto chuckled. 

 

"So cute!" Both boys nearly jumped when they heard the high pitched voice of Ino in the room, they turned around to see both in and Tsunami standing at the bedroom door. Shikamaru's light pink blush turned into tomato red and he tried to hide under the covers.

 

Naruto laughed again, "hey, whatever happened to knock before you enter, Ino?"

 

Ino smirked, "yeah right, like I would ever miss a chance to catch the scoop when it was ripe for the taking!" She said with her hands on her hips, "besides, it's breakfast and everyone's already done stairs, so hurry up you lovebirds!" She turned and started walking away.

 

"Oh, wait, Ino," Naruto called out, stopping her, she looked at him to see what he wanted. "Tell everyone that training starts right after breakfast, no later, okay?" Ino nodded and continued walking, Tsunami told them that the food was already on the table and they could help themselves when they came down. When she left, Naruto got out of bed and stretched his arms, "come one Shika-chan, let's see what's on the menu today."

 

Shikamaru caught up to Naruto and they walk down to the dining room, "you really went all out on this place, didn't you, Naruto?" He said as they walked down the hall together.

 

"Yeah, might as well, it's a good test of my skills, I wouldn't want my senseis to think that I didn't take his teachings to hard just because I mostly use chakra. But anyway, enough about that, let's talk about training. What do you think about the water walking exercise I taught you and Chouji last weekend? Are you getting it so far?" Naruto asked.

 

"Yeah, I've pretty much got it down pack. It's Chouji I'm worried about, I explained it to him and tried to show him, but he's taking a little longer than me." Shikamaru explained, "I also talked to Ino last night and she said that she would like to get some training from you too, I don't think she'll be chasing after Sasuke for a while still." He thought for a moment, "actually, now that I think about it, I think that we should probably move onto the wave exercise you told me about the week before."

 

"Really, the wave exercise already?" Naruto asked with a sly smile on his face, "do you really think you can handle it? It's supposed to be much, much harder than both the wall and water walking exercises." Shikamaru nodded, "yeah? Okay then, we can start after breakfast. If you can't do it right, then we'll go back to the water walking or move to something else, like...hm, maybe the ceiling stand?"

 

"What's a 'ceiling stand'?" Ino asked, by now, the two had made it down to the dining room, Ino heard them talking and was curious.

 

"The ceiling stand is another chakra control exercise, it's not taught in the academy because of how much control you're supposed to have." Naruto explained as he got a plate and started helping himself to some of the food still left out on the table. "It's one of the harder exercises that I know, but if you would like to try it out, you'll have to master wall climbing and water walking first."

 

"Hey, baka, stop making up stuff to sound cool. There's no way a person can stand on the ceiling, there's nothing to hold onto up there dumby," Sakura butted in.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, he almost forgot that she was still alive. "Sakura, have you ever head of water walking or tree climbing?" 

 

"Everyone knows how to climb a tree, dobe, wh-" Sasuke started, but Naruto cut him off.

 

"No, I said tree climbing, as in the exercise used to strengthen and control your chakra by using it to climb a tree with your feet and not your hands." Naruto rolled his eyes, he wondered if it was too late to reconsider marrying Sasuke, but knowing the civilian council, they'll make a big stink about it if he refused now. "Anyways, I'm surprised that you and Sasuke don't know about neither tree climbing or water walking exercise, seeing as how you guys were the supposed head of the class and rookie of the year. I would have to say that I'm a little disappointed in you two for not living up to the hype." He smirked when he noticed Sakura's face was turning red from both embarrassment and anger.

 

"Yeah, if it's so great, then how come a dobe like you have heard of it and I never have?" 

 

"YEAH! HOW COME SASUKE-KUN NEVER HEARD OF IT?" 

 

"You have heard of it, Sasuke," Ino said. The two turned to her as if she had just cussed at them in a foreign language, "what? You have, remember when Naruto summonsed his tiger and it was standing on the surface of the water perfectly? That was water walking, its pretty much the same thing as tree climbing, but you're doing it up a tree," she explained.

 

"Wow, well look at you Ino, and here I thought you only cared about shopping and gossip," Assuma boosted before taking a sip of his hot coffee. Man's best friend. He missed the glare that Ino sent his way coincidentally. 

 

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes before turning back to Naruto, "I can't wait until you show me that wave exercise that Shikamaru was talking about. It sounds cool."

 

Kakashi looked up from his porn when he heard about a new jutsu he's never heard of before. "What's this 'wave exercise' you're talking about?" He asked.

 

Naruto looked over at the one-eyed pervert, he almost forgot that he was still alive as well. Why was there so many annoying people in his life? He sat down with his plate in front of him, "don't try to steal it, Kakashi, I've got ways of finding out if you ever use it without my knowledge permission." He began to eat his food while the silver-haired jonin looked at him petulantly, "anyway, if Ino didn't tell you all yet, training starts after breakfast, so try to fill up as much as you can so you don't pass out from hunger or something."

 

Everyone turned to Sakura, "why are you all looking at me? I'm watching my figure!" She looked at Ino's plate, it was filled with a lot of the food that was on the table while her plate only had a piece of toast on it. "Ino-pig looks like you're living up to your name exactly."

 

A tick mark appeared on Ino's face, "well I would rather be fat than to be starving all the time!" She shouted back at Sakura before started to eat again, she didn't know what she had been thinking before. Starving herself because of one guy that didn't pay her any attention? It was very ridiculous now that she thought about it. Assuma looked released, and the rest of the people at the table looked like Ino was setting a good example for girls everywhere. However, Sakura felt like she been left behind for some reason that she wasn't fully aware of as of yet, so she stared down at her plain piece of toast. There wasn't even any butter on it, just try bread, so sad.

 

Tazuna leaned over to his daughter, "what kind of diet is this girl on? Is she fasting or something?"

 

Tsunami looked over at Sakura, "I think it's called 'the shallow girl' diet, it's super popular for young girls that don't know any better." 

 

* * *

 

**After breakfast**

 

Once everyone was done with their food, and Sakura had finally finished her two bites of toast, everyone left the house. Naruto made a bunch of reinforced shadow clones to go to bridge with Tazuna, thirty to patrol and secure the area while fifty helped the workers build the bridge. Because there were so many clones showing up at the bridge to help out and protect them, the workers felt a little safer and didn't quite as quickly as they would have if just three genin and a jonin showed up. Meanwhile, Tsunami had five clones helping her bring the leftover food out to people in need, she had made sure to get up extra early to make more than enough food to feed a village since the kitchen that Naruto made could restock itself. Naruto led everyone into the surrounding forest after putting up a barrier around the house, which happened to be three stories now, that would detect danger from a two miles away and prepare for it accordingly. Kakashi allowed Naruto to led them because he was curious what the blond would do next, and Assuma was also wondering what the boy did to make Ino, his gossip-loving student, want to train so much now. Once they were in the clearing a clearing that Naruto liked, the blond container went to the center of it and drew a seal in the grass, stepping away from it, the seal glowed a bright blue color and shinned around the clearing. The next thing anyone knew, all the trees started moving about, as if they were alive, and tried attacking them all with lethal force. Of course, Shikamaru and Chouji were used to this kind of training from Naruto since they started hanging out together and jumped away in time before they were crushed. Assuma and Kakashi managed to get out of the way on instinct, Assuma was impressed and Kakashi was wondering how a genin could do sealing so strong. Ino just barely escaped and Sasuke was quick enough to analyze the danger of the situation. However, Sakura had to be saved more than a few times during the course of an hour.

 

"Oi! Baka! What kind of training is this supposed to be? I thought you said you were going to give us training, not attack up with trees!" Sasuke shouted as he dodged a swiping tree branch.

 

"I am training you Sasuke, I'm just doing it in my own way. If I just showed you everything I knew, then you wouldn't learn anything concrete, and that's not my style!" Naruto said as he ducked under some branches, "I cast a spell on the surrounding area, if you want to survive, you're going to have to find a red flag, a blue bandana, a yellow boot, and an orange banana to turn off the first level of the game. After that, you get to go on to the next level."

 

"What? An orange banana? What the hell are you playing at Uzumaki? There's no such thing as an orange banana!" Kakashi said as he jumped over a falling tree trunk."

 

"You would think so, wouldn't you, like I said, I cast a spell on the area. The first person to make it through the whole game will win a prise most suited to them." Naruto explained, he stood on top of a tall tree that was battling Shikamaru and Chouji, "the object of the game will be tracking, attacking, thinking, and fighting. All of your skills will be tested, and right now, since this is your first level, all kekei genki's are turned off. Chakra usage of jutsu over D-rank is punishable by ejection of the game, so you'll have to start over. No one is allowed to leave this area until all the items I've mentioned have been collected, there is no time limit in this game because this area's time has been stopped. Once you finish the game and go back to the real world, no time would have passed and you would have become stronger than you were before."

 

"That's not fair, how come we have to find these things and you don't?" Sakura yelled, almost being slammed into another tree by a flying log. 

 

"I never said that I wouldn't need to play, I said everyone needs to find these items. Anyone that finds an item will be able to lean one jutsu, if you bring all the items to the center of the clearing, you will learn a unique jutsu that only you can use, no one else. I can promise this because that is the contract I have made with the summoned spirit of the forest." Naruto said as he jumped to another tree that almost gets burned by Kakashi's flames, "the last thing before we start, no harm is to come from this forest, understand? In this leave, you must learn how to get through without being detected. If any trees get burned, broken, or destroyed in any way, you will no longer be welcomed in the forest anywhere. You will be forever cursed. Have fun!" Naruto then disappeared in a swirl of blue smoke.

 

"HOW CAN HE SAY HAVE FUN WHEN THERE ARE TREES ATTACKING US?!" Sakura screamed, but everyone ignored her and tried to focus on not getting squished by the trees around them. 

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**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know it's short, but I've got a busy schedule and don't get a lot of time to write now. Sorry, but at least I'm trying.


	11. Wave 6: Take down the monster!

Naruto wasn't a monster, of course not, how could he be? He was just dealt a bad hand, that's all. Who could ever think he was a monster? Well, there was one person that thought so at the moment, and his name was is Gato, the business tycoon that wanted to take over the Land of Wave for his own selfish reasons. Or rather, Gato, the man that was now trying to beg for his life.

 

How did we get here? 

 

Well, when Naruto cast the jutsu of the forest area, he lied about a few things. He also forgot to mention somethings about the jutsu.

 

  1. Even though he told them that he also had to collect certain items in the area in order to move up a level and be free. That was a lie, he could still come and go as he pleased since he cast the jutsu. However, there was only a number of times that he could leave, and he could not undo the jutsu until everyone still inside it had captured all the items he named.
  2. There was a time limit on the jutsu that would dispell it even though he said that they can't leave unless they got all the items needed. The way that would work is if Naruto had cast the jutsu on an area that was favorable to his strongest affinity. Even though he could use any and all elements, his strongest affinity at the moment was wind, so the jutsu would be strongest in or near Suna.
  3. The trees aren't really attacking. It only seems like they are because that was the common thing in the area at the time, so if they were in a place filled with rocks, bugs, plants, or any sort of wildlife, it would look like they were attacking them too. In reality, the thing that was really attacking them were their doubts, emotions, weakness. Things that would usually get in the way of doing well on a mission.
  4. Shikamaru and Chouji were also able to leave the jutsu as well, in fact, they weren't even there at all. Which brings us to the last thing Naruto forgot to mention.
  5. The jutsu can copy anyone inside the area and make them fight against anyone we seemed to be getting close to leaving the jutsu.



 

With that said, Naruto was looking over Gato's mansion. He was disgusted by all the things he was seeing. 

 

"H-ho-h-how d-di-did y-y-you g-get i-i-in h-here?" Gato asked shakily as he looked up to the blond in fear.

 

"Tsk, how I got in is of no concern to you. My question is, how is that you were able to collect such a high place on Lord Death's wishlist." Naruto countered as he tossed some documents in front of the evil tycoon. "Do you know what that is? Documents on illegal activity carried out by you for years, so far I have counted seven deaths of your prisoners in the past six weeks. Would you care to explain where all this extra money was coming from to fund your business in the South?" He asked as he held up a detailed bank receipt that was dated three days ago, he crouched down in front of Gato so that he was face to face with him, eye to eye. "The way I see it, you would be doing the whole world a favor if you no longer breath air...unless you have something to say in your defense."

 

"I-I...I...I-I don't know where you got that idea from, Naruto-sama, but please, don't hurt my babies! They're all I have!!" Gato squealed.

 

Naruto sneered at him before standing up and turning away from him. He looked at the only other door in the room that was left unopened yet, he looked to see his clones looking through countless amounts of paperwork, records, logs, and so on. But this door seemed to be the only thing that wasn't checked as of yet, "hm..." he started for the door, "I wonder what's behind here"

 

Gato panicked when he saw the direction that Naruto was heading it. "No! Y-you can't-you can't go in there..." He tried, but Naruto didn't seem like he was listening to him. He tried to stand up, but the knots that held his binds would not allow for movement, he was getting frustrated at the fact that he couldn't move. "NO! I FORBID YOU TO GO INTO THAT ROOM! THAT-"

 

"WHAT?!" Naruto stopped in his tracks, Gato almost thought he had won, that is until Naruto turned burning red eyes on him. "Did you just say that you forbid me from going into that room?" He asked as he turned around to fae Gato fully, Gato was sweating under the intense gaze of his eyes.

 

"W-well, I um, no, I di-didn't say, I forb-I-I-I just...don't want you to wake them is all..." He gave a nervous smile to the blond.

 

Naruto was reaching the end of his rope with Gato, he got in the man's face, eyes glowing red. "Who shouldn't I wake?"

 

"M-m-m-my...d-daughter?" Gato tried, hoping that this would get him out of trouble.

 

Too bad Naruto wasn't as forgiving as he first thought. "You daughter huh?" Naruto backed away from the man a little, he took in a deep breath. Gato thought that he was going to get off the hook for a second, but then he saw a black boot racing towards his face, a second later, he was seeing stars. The impact sent him flying across the room near to his well-designed fireplace. Naruto scuffed, "I think it would be rude of me not to introduce myself to this person, I would love to get her opinion on you as a father," he turned around and walked over to the still closed door. He turned the nob and opened it slowly, inside of the room was dark, only the light from the outside room allowed him to see what was inside, but still, it very dark. From what he could tell, the room had no windows, he couldn't even spot a bed of any kind, what he could see from the dull lighting, were a pair of shackles and some chains. On the far wall, he could make out the outline of a figure sitting on the ground, he looked closer and saw...

 

* * *

 

**Three days earlier**

 

 

"Hey, Naruto, how are we supposed to find out where this Gato guy lives? It doesn't seem like he lives anywhere near the village," Chouji informed.

 

"Yeah, I figured as much. He must be hiding out on one of the smaller islands then. I can't image why though," Naruto said sarcastically.

 

"Why do you say that?" Shikamaru asked as he leaned on the blond's shoulder lazily.

 

"Oh, you know, because if it was me, and I had a ninja army at my beck and call, I would make sure that I was well protected all the time. Since I would have tones of cash I could burn through in a day and still have a ton more waiting. I could easily find a place to live near the village that wouldn't require a lot of traveling, nor would it draw any attention to me whatsoever while I'm there, or not there. Since I'm the one terrorizing the village, I would have complete control in knowing what and where my victims were at all times." Naruto theorized, "yet, from what we have found in the past few hours Gato doesn't live in or near the area, so he has to live on one of the smaller islands that used to be used for trading purposes."

 

"Ah, that does make a lot of sense, but Wave has at least three small islands. The boats are used by Gato's mean to bring their goods in and out of the village whenever they wanted, and the marina has been taken over by them too. It's so troublesome, we have no way of getting to any of those islands." Shikamaru state.

 

Naruto thought to himself for a moment. He was trying to think up a plan but wasn't getting anywhere until his nose caught a familiar scent. He turned his nose up to the sky and sniffed, stopping all other thoughts he had before, Shikamaru and Chouji stopped what they were doing as well to look at him. They shared a look, "um, Naruto? What are you doing?" Chouji asked curiously.

 

"I think I just found the scent of a familiar foe," Naruto smirked.

 

He hopped off the bench he was sitting on and walked down the path, he doesn't bother to look back to see if they were following him or not as he continues to sniff the air. Chouji looked at Shikamaru for an answer, Shikamaru sighed. "I have a feeling that this is gonna get troublesome, but we might as well follow him." He said in his usual lazy drool, he got up from the bench an started walking behind Naruto, followed by Chouji. 

 

After following their blond friend for a while, they noticed that they were heading away from the village and deeper into the forest. Chouji looked around to see if he could identify where they were going when an object in the distance caught his attention. It was far off from where they were, but it wasn't so far that he couldn't make out some of its detail. it wasn't exactly a house of any kind, but it did look like a place that someone had built, it looked to be made out of wood, there were windows on one side of the structure. All though it didn't look like it had a door, Chouji was sure that he could see someone leaving the make-shift house. "Hey, Shikamaru, look over there, do you see that?" He asked getting his friends attention as he pointed to the thing in the distance.

 

"Huh? What is that supposed to be? A house maybe?" Shikamaru asked himself as he looked at the distant house-like structure, it was definitely someplace that someone decided to live in. However, it was clear that whoever that person was, was not very clear on how a house was supposed to look. Either that or someone was being funny with its construction. Either way, now that they were looking at it, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the wilderness.

 

"Ah, perfect, what you guys say we go say hi?" Naruto asked, even though he was already walking over to the place.

 

Shikamaru frowned, "what? No way, what if there are some of Gato's men hiding in there? We need our sensei's to back us up if we're going to face them."

 

"I don't think he heard you, Shikamaru," Chouji commented as the two watched Naruto getting closer to the house-like thing.

 

Shikamaru sighed, "what a drag, let's go get him before he does something to get us all in trouble." Chouji nodded and they both started walking towards the place that Naruto was getting close to.

 

Naruto, in the meanwhile, had already analyzed that the place he was heading to was, in fact, a house. It only looked oddly because there was a genjutsu placed over it. Naruto suspected that the jutsu was meant for whoever saw it, was supposed to think that nothing was there. He was familiar with this type of genjutsu specifically because he had invented it not too long ago. He came up with it when he was about five and was trying to stay out of the villager's way so he could rest for the night, and since then, he had only shown this jutsu to one other person. he reached out to where he suspected the door handle was and pulled lightly, of course, the door was locked and he had no key, so he went with a different approach. he put one hand on the center of the door, he took in a deep breath, focusing, he let his chakra flow to his hands and then onto the door. The door began to freeze over until it was only a solid block of ice, stepping back, he cocked his fist back and hit the door when his hand was. The door started to crack outwards until it reached the edges of the door and then broke into a million pieces, he smirked and stepped inside, leaving an awe-stricken Chouji and Shikamaru in his wake. Stepping inside, he knew that there was only one person in the room, and he was the injured man from that time not too long ago. He walked up to the bed and smiled sweetly down at the man, "ah, so nice to meet you again, 'Demon of the Mist', Zabuza Momochi."

 

The said man was laying in bed, glaring up at Naruto. "Well, well, well, if this isn't the biggest surprise of all. It looks like I've been found out by no one other than you. I will admit that this second encounter is a little more surprising than the last since it seems that you've seen through my weapon's jutsu so easily..." He looked Naruto up and down. The boy was wearing plain clothes and didn't smell like anything more than grass and leaves, it made sense now since Zabuza couldn't catch his scent in the air when he got close. However, what didn't make sense to him now was that even with him so close, he couldn't sense the boy's presence at all.  _"He's an odd one alright, but I don't know how well I can trust him..."_ he thought to himself,  _"back then, he was by himself as well, is he with the bridge builder? If so, it looks like I'll have my work cut out for me if we have to face each other in battle again."_

 

"Oi, bandages, you gonna lay there all day starin' at me? Or are you gonna tell me what I wanna know?" Naruto interrupted his thoughts. 

 

"Eh, what you want to know? What do I look like to you kid, a teacher? Why don't you get lost, I've got other things to do than to play around with you," Zabuza replied as he turned his head away from the blond. He still couldn't get a read on him, not his presence, his emotions, or anything. It was like this boy before him had been trained in the art of deception since he was old enough to walk.  _"And if that's not bad enough, I think I've seen those eyes before, they remind me strangely enough of the Yellow Flash, that bastard. But..."_ he glanced back at the blond,  _"I can also tell that they are two different people. Yet, even though he's so young, I feel like there's a danger that involves him, something that may even make the Shikigami quiver where he stood. I don't like this at all, damn, I wish Haku hadn't thrown his needles like that back there, now I can barely move!"_ He glanced back at the boy when he heard someone giggling, "what's so funny, brat?"

 

"Oh nothing, I just know that you can't move right now. So..." Naruto pulled out a marl from his pocket, with a mischievous smile, he drew lewd pictures and words onto Zabuza's face. "There, you don't mind if I did this right? I mean, it's only magic marker right," he smirked.

 

A tick mark appeared on Zabuza's forehead,  _"I don't care how good this kid is, I will get him back for this."_ He thought angrily, "listen, kid before I get really angry, why are you here?"

 

"What? Weren't you listening before? I'm here to get some information on your boss, don't you remember me saying that?" Naruto asked as he plopped himself down on the side of Zabuza's bed. "Man, and here I thought adults were supposed to listen to what listen to a kid to help them solve their problems," he said in a fake whine.

 

"Listen, kid, like I told you, I have other thi-"

 

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But here's the thing though," Naruto cut off Zabuza, "you can't move from this bed until that boy comes back with the herbs he's gathering. So in reality, you don't have shit to do, and you should just listen to me. I have been known to be quite troublesome when I don't get what I want."

 

"You got that right," the two looked over to where the door used to be, they saw Shikamaru looking down at the frozen, broken door. "I'm not sure I want to know how you did this, but I'm sure that it was you since no one else is here," he assumed. He looked at the guy in the bed and was on edge, "hey, Naruto, what are you doing to this guy?"

 

"Nothing Shika-chan, why would you ask such a thing?" Naruto asked innocently.

 

"Maybe because you're sitting on this guy's bed and he has marker all over his face," Chouji said through a mouthful of chips. 

 

Naruto shrugged, "I guess I couldn't get away with it with my background in the arts, huh?" 

 

"Not a chance," they both said, Naruto sweat-dropped.

 

"You could have lied," he mumbled to himself.

 

By this point, Zabuza was getting really pissed off, he could sense the newcomers, but still, he could not get anything from Naruto. Why?  _"And what the hell is taking Haku so long with those herbs!_

 

"Well, anyways, let's get down to business," Naruto said clapping his hands to get everyone's attention on him. He turned to Zabuza, "listen here pal, I know you're working for that piece of trash Hato. I also know that he has a history of killing off the ninjas he's hired when he's done with them so he doesn't have to pay for their service. However, if you would like to not die when and if you can complete your job, I have an offer that I would like to extend to you. This is coming out of the goodness of my heart so I suggest that you listen well.  **very well.** "

 

The feeling of danger increased inside of Zabuza, but he didn't let it show. He was on edge, even if he couldn't move much, he would not allow himself to be beaten by this boy. "Why should I believe the word of a kid like you? It seems like you have a history of lying somethings and I'm not interested in playing your games."

 

"Hmm, too bad, no one place better games than me." He smirked, "but this is not really the type of game just some kids play. This is life or death, I didn't do it in the forest, but I could do it now, your defenses are way low and I already applied my poison on you." Zabuza looked at Naruto as if trying to see if he was lying, Naruto held up the magic marking in his hand and Zabuza narrowed his eyes at him, "it's pretty cool what you could mix poison with nowadays. It used to be limited to food and drinks, but I find lipstick, makeup, hair dye, jewelry, and some clothing could do the trick just as well. If it touches the skin, then I've already won. So," Naruto put away the poisonous marker, "if you want the antidote, please cooperate with me, okay?" He looked out at the sky through the window, "you have until sunset to give me your answer," he got up and started walking out of the room.

 

Shikamaru and Chouji watched, shocked, "you're not seriously going to leave him like this, are you, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Naruto paused at the door-sized hole he made, "yes and no. It will be painful if he did nothing, his blood would feel like acid, his skin will feel like needles, and anything past an hour would only beg for death. But," he turned a smile to his future wife, "if he agrees, then all I'll have to do is remove the poison. Its something that only I can do, so it apprentice can't kill me to get me out of the way."

 

"Haku! Stop," Zabuza suddenly spoke. 

 

Shikamaru and Chouji looked back at him in confusion before turning back to Naruto, who was still smiling. However, when they turned back to him, there was another person there, standing behind Naruto with a kunai to his throat. This new person had appeared so suddenly, the two had not even sensed him, _"is he a jonin?"_   They wondered, getting a closer look at him, they saw that this was not the case. The person had long hair, a feminine face, fair/pale skin, and a slim figure wrapped up in a pink sleeveless kimono.

 

"Haku? Is that any way to treat someone you haven't seen in so long?" Naruto asked as he turned around to face him, Haku's chocolate brown eyes widened when she saw his deep blue eyes. It was the first time that Zabuza saw real emotions in Haku's eyes. What happened next was something that no one had expected. Haku shoved the kunai into Naruto's chest, right into his heart. Naruto looked shocked at that before he could ask why Haku ripped the knife out and slashed it across the blond's throat so fast that all anyone could see was the light glistening on the blade. Blood splashed on the wall and time seemed to stand still, everyone watched as Naruto coughed up blood as he tried to breath, every time he tried to get air in, blood would come out, soon enough, he fell to his knees and then on to the floor. The room became silent as they looked at Naruto's still body to Haku with the blad in his hand, realization seemed to sink in and Haku dropped the knife, he fell to his knees in shock, staring wide-eyed at the blond now laying on the floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Is...is he dead?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	12. Wave 7: Loop holes and demons

"Don't worry, Shika-chan, I'm not dead." Naruto slowly lifted himself off the ground and sat up. He ripped the kunai from his body, he looked at it and sighed, "you haven't changed one bit, huh, Haku?"

 

"Hmph, that's for leaving me in that hell hole by myself to die, you bastard!"

 

Now that shocked Zabuza a bit, he had never seen or heard Haku sound angry at anyone before. It was like was watching his weapon through a whole new set of eyes, but he stayed silent to see where this would go. As for Naruto and his friends, of which would soon be his wife, was showing varying reactions. Chouji was beyond confused, Shikamaru was a mix of worry, confused, and angry at the same time. While Naruto could only smile at the situation, "now, now, don't be like that, I had no choice but to head back. The Hokage had sent ninjas after me at the time and I was only five or six, remember?"

 

"Hmph, you were pretty smart for a kid from what I remember." Hakur had his hand folded in front of him, looking as if he was more than ready to go over to Naruto and beat him up with a frying pan, "besides, I could have hidden you in the clubhouse until they left."

 

Naruto shook his head, "know and I both know that wouldn't have worked either." He stood up with ease, even though he had so much blood coming out of him before, "and, from what I heard, you had some problems of your own the following year, am I right?"

 

Haku pouted, "so you checked up on me after all that time went by?"

 

  
"My clones did, not me. I was under lock and key at the time. Plus, the Hokage made his men wiped my memories of that time, so I couldn't have known."

 

"So how can you tell me this now?"

 

"I had a clone watching when I got my memories taken away. They were able to come up with something to give them all back a few years ago, but by that time, you weren't in Kiri anymore. You disappeared during the civil war, much to my surprise."

 

Haku rolled his eyes, "you're not the only one who can disappear without being found when they needed to."

 

"True, true." Naruto to Shikamaru and Chouji, "guys, this is an old friend of mine when I was younger, don't be fooled by his appearance. Haku's a sweet boy with a perverted side to him."

 

"HEY!"

 

"He's also the person that's going to help us get to Gato," Naruto continued, undeterred by Haku's outburst.

 

"Uhm, hold on, I'm confused, is he really our Allie?" Chouji asked Naruto nodded, "really? Then why did he try to kill you just know? 

 

"And how are you even standing? He aimed a Kunai at your heart!" Shikamaru put in.

 

Naruto waved off their concern, "trust me if he was really trying to kill me, that would have started a fight between us like this land has never seen. That's why we're enlisting their help."

 

Zabuza decided now was the time he could jump in, "mind explaining that part to me again kid?" 

 

Naruto turned back to Zabuza, "sure thing. Well, if you didn't know already, my team is here to help this bridge builder make a bridge that would get his country out from under Gato's thumb. But Gato's such a pig that he wasn't to kill the bridge builder and anyone else that tries to free the land. Our job is to keep the bridge builder alive long enough to finish the bridge, but, if Gato's around, that makes the job difficult. That's why thought it would be best to head straight for the source. Gato wants this land, but we're going to take it from him."

 

"Hmm, sounds like a fool's plan to me. Gato's got men all over the place working for him." Zabuza stated, "he's also got me working for him, how do you know that I won't just run off and tell Gato what you told me as soon as you leave?"

 

Naruto smirked, "simple, you can't run nowhere after that fight with Kakashi. Second, I happened to run into something interesting about Gato sometime back. It seems that every hunter ninja that Gato highers gets taken out at the end of every job when they're too weak to keep fighting. He highers bandits to finish off the hunter ninja and pays them far cheaper than what he did the ninja, seeing as how they're either party is expendable to him anyways. I bet he's even planning something for you guys too."

 

"What makes you so sure kid?" Zabuza asked.

 

"If you don't believe me, then ask Haku, he's known me for quite a time. He knows that I won't lie about something like this." Naruto licked the kunai in his hand as he got a hungry look in his eye, "especially since this is my first real time outside of that damn village in ages, I think I deserve to have a little fun. Don't you want to have fun too, Zabuza?"

 

Zabuza recognized that look in Naruto's eyes, he's seen two other ninjas in the nations that had the same look in their eyes. He was sure it must have been a coincidence for those two, but for this kid to have the same bloodthirsty eyes as them? Impossible! But this kid was interesting, Zabuza would at least admit that much. "Alright kid, you've got yourself a deal, however, you'll have to wait to have your fun. Your sensei did a number on me in that fight, after our deal's over, I wouldn't mind going after him again."

 

Naruto scuffed, he lost his smirk from earlier, it was replaced with a look of disgust on his face. "Don't even bother."

 

 

Zabuza raised an invisible eyebrow, "oh? Why's that?"

 

"That bastard doesn't even think of the safety of his students. He's always testing us on stupid shit like if we would notice a puddle on the side of the road when it hasn't rained in days. We're already genin and that lazy bum of sensei hasn't even bothered to train us on tree climbing or water walking during the first week." Naruto stated, in fact, from what he had seen from the other sensei's, his team was the most behind. He sighed, "anyway, I'll heal your wounds and we can head out to Gato's hiding place tomorrow morning. When I'm done, you might want to think of a way to think me. I don't do this shit for free you know," he said as he walked over to Zabuza's bed. He placed his hand over the man's chest and abdomen as he closed his eyes to concentrate.

 

"Snooty brat," Zabuza mumbled as he watched Naruto begin to heal him. A light green glow started to come from his hands before it turned a darker shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its short, I know. But the next chapter will be longer. Promise.


	13. Wave 8: Murder, I maybe

Once Zabuza could move again, he decided to see what else Naruto could and agreed to help him get to the pig's hideout. But their plans had to wait until later that night since Naruto had to recharge his powers, seeing as how he had to trap Kakashi, Asuma and the others in that jutsu for a prolonged amount of time. Then redirect the tip of Haku's blad just before it hit anything really vital, like say, maybe the actual organ that pumps life into his body. Honesty, if he didn't know any better, he would have said that Haku was really trying to kill him for real. And, of course, healing Zabuza's body completely, even removing a few life-threatening scars and previous poorly healed wounds that would become a problem down the line, was no walk in the park either. Plus, Zabuza couldn't exactly get up and walk about on his own either after that anyways, so their plans would have to wait until later on that night when both parties were capable of standing on their own two feet again, long enough to take down Gato. 

 

* * *

 

 

**Back at Tazuna's house.**

 

Chouji was able to carry Naruto back to the house with Shikamaru just as Tazuna and some Naruto clones were coming back from the bridge. Tazuna noticed the trio coming as he was opening the front door, "hm? What happened to him?" He asked.

 

"He overworked himself and almost got killed," Shikamaru said. And if you weren't paying much attention, you might not have heard the slight annoyance hidden in Nara's voice, mixed in with a hint of worry, but he hid it well enough.

 

Not well enough for Naruto, though. The blond on Chouji's back sighed tiredly, "I told you before, Shika-chan, I'm fine. I've practiced it so many times before that it's become second nature now, and it's not like this hasn't happened to me before."

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shikamaru asked with his arms folded, "should I be assuming that you go around getting almost killed by everyone you meet?" The annoyance in his voice was even more noticeable this time, but no one said anything about it. 

 

"No, that's not wha-" Naruto yawned, his eyes drooped sleepily, "what I'm saying. Stop worrying so much, you'll age prematurely."

 

Shikamaru wiped around to send a heated glare to the blond, "and how am I not supposed to w-" he was cut off by the sound of soft snoring.

 

"Uh, he fell asleep, Shika," Chouji announced.

 

"Hmmm, well, I don't know what this is all about, but if he's sleeping, you should bring him inside then." Tazuna stated opening the door wide for them, "he must be pretty heavy, do you need a hand or something kid?"

 

Chouji walked into the house, he shook his head, "Nah, he's actually pretty light. Much lighter than I would have expected him to be too," he said as he headed towards the stairs.

 

Shikamaru walked in behind Tazuna, watching Chouji disappear with his boyfriend. Now, Tazuna may have been old, but he wasn't blind, he could clearly see what was going on here, "if I didn't know any better, I would have said that you two were lovers or something." Shikamaru's blush gave him his answer, "ah huh, so that's what it is then. Isn't it." He asked as he sat at the table.

 

Shikamaru couldn't deny it, "how di  you know?" 

 

"The way you look and talk to that kid, it's more obvious than having someone hit you with a frying pan in slow motion." Tazuna nodded to himself sagely, Shikamaru looked to the bridge builder, "and I can tell by the way he just looks at you, he's head over heels for you too."

 

Shikamaru's blush got deeper, "re-really?!"

 

Tazuna nodded, "yep, you can't hide these things from an old man like me, I've seen some things, you don't get to be this old without knowing a thing or two you know." He smiled brightly at the young Nara heir, "now, why don't you tell this old man what that little spat was out there. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to give you some advice."

 

"Uh, o-okay," Shikamaru replied hesitantly as he walked over to sit at the table as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Later that night**

 

Naruto lazily opened his eye to the sight of one of the guest bedroom ceilings. He tried to get up but felt a weight on his chest, he craned his head enough to see what it was and saw a head of raven hair. For a second, he had wondered when he Sasuke had escaped from the jutsu he had set up when the owner of the hair started to stir. The person got up and rubbed his eyes, "Naruto? you're awake?" Came the sleepy voice of Shikamaru, he had been waiting on the bed with the blond waiting for him to wake up. However, at some point, he found himself falling asleep and ended up using Naruto as a pillow in the process. Shikamaru was a little disappointed by the blond waking up, don't get him wrong, he's happy that Naruto's awake and all, but the blond really did make a great pillow. Maybe even the best pillow he's ever used in his life, except it was a human, not an object.

 

"Hey, Shika-chan, were you waiting here for me all this time?" Naruto asked as he sat up and stretched his muscles. 

 

Shikamaru pouted and turned away from Naruto, "no, I was just resting my eyes. You just happened to be laying here when I did, that's all."

 

"Wow, you sound like one of those people, what are they called again, yand-something?" Naruto wondered as he started to get out of bed, "well, whatever, what's for dinner, I'm starved."

 

Shikamaru was blushing and glaring at the blond as he stretched his legs, "it's yandere and no, I don't." The Nara got out of bed and started for the door, upset that Naruto would think he was some crazy stalker girl. 

 

Naruto took in Shikamaru's reaction and came to the conclusion, will this just re-awakened brain, that Shikamaru didn't like his comments just now. He sighed, "damn, I should start thinking about what I say to my mates next time or else this whole harem thing that Kurama mentioned isn't going to play out the way I want." Over the month that Naruto was getting to know his future 'wives', Kurama had explained to him all of his past experiences in a harem. For a giant for with nine tails, he seemed to have gotten a lot of action while he was free. With the foxes sort of graphic retelling of his...'adult adventures', Naruto starting to wonder if he could also reenact some of the things that the fox told him about. But he doubted that all of his mates, especially Shino, would be extremely flexible enough to-

 

"Naruto!" 

 

Naruto jumped, turning to the door with a nervous grin on his face to see Tsunami. "Haha hey, Tsunami, what's up? I wasn't thinking of anything weird." He tried to cover his weird reaction, but it seemed to have made it worse.  _"At least it wasn't Shikamaru, he would be on to him in seconds."_

 

"Na-wait, what?" Tsunami asked, her mother senses were tingling, she could just smell the poorly told lie coming off of the blond. He folded her arms, "what was that mister? What were you thinking of just now?"

 

"Uh, what?" Naruto sweated a bit,  _"crap, I forgot that moms are supposed to have something like ninja senses when it comes to kids well being. I better think of something quick to distract her,"_ he thought. "Uh, nothing, so, was there something you needed? You seemed to be in a rush just now?" 

 

"Huh? I was?" Tsunami paused before clapping her fist down on her hand as she suddenly remembered, "oh, that's right. There was this really scary looking guy with bandages wrapped around his face holding a big sword that came to the front door just now as I was finishing dinner. He's also got a masked kid with him," she explained, "they said that they were looking for you."

 

"A big scary guy and a kid with a mask...Oh! Zabuza, that's right!" Naruto said as he brin finally kicked into full gear once more, "don't worry, Tsunami, they're some new friends of mine, they're here to help," he said as he walked over and out the door. 

 

Tsunami followed, a little confused, "here to help? Are they from your village? From what I saw, their headbands looked different from the ones your team wore."

 

"Yeah, that's because they're actually some missing ninjas that Gato hired to kill your father." Naruto explained, making Tsunami panic, he continued before she could worry herself sick, "don't worry though, they're good now."

 

"How would you even know that?!" Tsunami asked in a panic as they continued down the hall, "I mean, aren't missing ninjas supposed to be really dangerous and only kill people for money?"

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "honestly, what you just described is a summary of the ninja collective. Every ninja out there have been taught from a young age to go up and kill people for money. Sure it might bring their village some kind of glory when they complete a mission, but I believe missions that involve killing will be most tough for the younger who have finally managed to get the go-ahead of their first C rank mission." He stopped and turned back to the woman, "can you guess why genin are started out with D-rank mission instead of C-rank ones?"

 

"Uhm, to ease them into harder missions, I suppose," Tsunami answered curiously.

 

"That's correct," Naruto nodded and started walking again, "the D-rank missions in our villager are basically like chores that none of the villagers want to do. In fact, they are so lazy, they would rather pay a genin team to paint a fence, go grocery shopping, and babysits their kids instead of doing it themselves." The two made their way down the stairs as Naruto continued and his mild rant, "such things as babysitting and helping a person shop could be used as a stretch for training purposing in guarding someone important. However, picking up someone's groceries and painting their fencing is utterly useless as actual training. It should be better filed under a P for punishment or some sort."

 

Tsunami was listening actively to what Naruto was saying. She didn't know a whole lot about being a ninja or their duties other than what her father had told her over the years. In that case, she couldn't fully agree or disagree with what the blond was saying, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and took his word for it. When they reached the dining room, they found an uneasy Tazuna and Inari staring wearily at Zabuza and Haku. But who could blame them, with Zabuza's huge ass sword and the way his face was wrapped up, he did look every bit of the demon as his nickname had suggested he would. Tsunami wasn't sure how trustworthy these two ninjas would be in her home, and so close to her precious family, but she already gave Naruto her trust and she wasn't about to go back on it now. Stepping forth, she cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "um, since Naruto trust you, I would like to trust you too, p-please help us as much as you can," she bowed to Zabuza respectfully, even though her nerves were starting to get to her.

 

Zabuza looked at Tsunami as if she was speaking another language, he looked to Naruto. "What did you tell her? Why's she bowing in front of me?"

 

Naruto waved off the man's questions, "never mind that, have a seat at the table. I need to eat something before we head out, I'm starving."

 

"Huh, oh, right, I'm almost done making dinner," said standing upright again. She turned to go to the kitchen but paused to turn back to the table, "uhm, will you two like to join us?"

 

"Tsunami, no! What are you doing, those two are the guys that are out to kill me, remember!" Tazuna yelled across the room, he jumped and held Inari closer when Zabuza turned to look in his direction.

 

"Ah, keep your panties on, old man, these two are cool." Naruto said with a yawn, "I've actually talked them down from doing Gato's bidding, for now."

 

"For now!" Tazuna stated in a panic, "kid, what are you saying? What if, after you're done making nice with them, they just double back here and kill me anyway?! Gato's a very po-"

 

"Yeah, yeah, Gato this, Gato that. I'm tired of hearing about him, that's why I've talked these two into helping us get rid of him," Naruto said in a bored tone. He looked over to Zabuza and his apprentice, "isn't that right, Zabu?"

 

"Eh? Zabu? Who told you that you come up with nicknames for me, brat?" Zabuza asked as he took a seat at the far end of the table with his sword leaning next to him. He did this so that the old man and his grandson would settle down a bit. It didn't help much though.

 

"Who cares what I call you? We're good friends now, aren't we, Zabu?" Naruto asked with a bright smile on his face.

 

Zabuza rolled his eyes, "whatever."

 

"Take off your mask and have a seat, Haku, you don't want to be rude to your hostess. Do you?" Naruto asked as Tsunami started bringing out the food.

 

Haku took off his mask and took a seat next to his master, "no, of course not," he said respectfully. 

 

Shikamaru and Chouji took their seats next to Naruto, with Chouji being between him and the blond. Naruto wasn't sure what that was about, but Chouji gave him the sign that he would tell him later, so he would have to wait. Tazuna and Inari tried to sit as far away from Zabuza as possible because they still weren't sure if they could trust him as of yet. But the table was only so big, even now when Naruto had made it bigger than it was before, so they ended sitting at the head of the table. Right across from Zabuza, which made their effort seem pointless in the end. Once Tsunami was finished bringing out all the food she had made, she took a seat next to Inari just because she wanted to be close to her family in case anything really did happen. The dinner, even though a bit odd, didn't stay silent for long.

 

"Well, this is awkward," Naruto began, "why don't we plan a game while we eat?"

 

People don't play games while they have dinner, dummy," Inari said. The ever rude child that he was.

 

"Oh? You don't?" Naruto asked since he was a little confused by that because of the fact he's never shared a dinner with anyone but himself, the Kyuubi, and that one time that he took Shikamaru out on a date the day he met his team. Those times were simple and easy to handle, but what is one supposed to do when faced with a group of people that aren't already talking to each other?

 

"What do you mean by that?" Inari asked, "haven't you had dinner with your parents before?"

 

"Inari, don't be so rude!" Tsunami scolded him.

 

Inari was about to say something back, but Naruto cut him off, "I don't have parents..."

 

The room went silent after that, "oh, sorry about that kid," Tazuna stated before turning to his grandson. "Inari-"

 

"What? It's not my fault that he doesn't have parents!" Inari stated, "I don't see why it matters anyway, he's a ninja. He's lived all his life never knowing what it was like to under Gato's thumb like us. I bet-"

 

"Hey, shut up, kid, your voice is annoying me," Zabuza stated as he took a sip of tea. "I don't see why you're being all high and mighty anyway, it's like you like being under that pig's thumb all the time."

 

"No, I don't! Look what that monster did to our village! How could I be happy about that?" Inari asked with tears in his eyes, "he takes from the poor only to make himself richer, he's even taken a lot of people away from their families too. Anyone that gets in his way gets hurt. He's...he's a monster! Tha-that's why you guys should just leave, we don't need any help from you ninjas anyway. Gato's just going to end up hurting you too, so it's pointless for you to even be here..."

 

"Oh, Inari," Tsunami put a hand on her son's shoulder, seeing that he was trying not to cry in front of everyone.

 

"Did someone you love get hurt by him?" Haku asked innocently, this only made Inari's anger bubble up to the surface, but before he could start ranting and shouting. Naruto spoke.

 

"Even though Gato's taken so much from you, you still have more than I did when I was your age." The blond began, "I never had a move to really call my own. When I finally got a place of my own, I was alone, no one to talk to or invite over, just me. Then my home was taken from by spiteful people, but since there was no one there that cared for me, even just a little, I guess it wasn't really a home, to begin with. Someone once told me that a home is where the love is, I suppose I'm still looking for mine." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and went back to eating his food, his words weighing heavily on everyone's minds. Inari didn't say another word for the rest of the night. Zabuza found it hard to focus on eating after hearing what the blond said. As for the others at the table, they wondered what kind of life he had lived up until now.

 

 

**Five minutes later**

 

Everyone was mostly done with their silent meal. Naruto had cleaned his plate of food, he was just happy that no one in the house hated him enough to poison it like some people had tried to do in the past. Now that his belly was full, he stood up from the table, "well then, I'm done, I'm going to get ready for the mission." He left the table without a word. 

 

"So, you guys are really going to go after him, huh?" Tsunami asked trying to liven up the mood again, but it was already dead.

 

Shikamaru nodded, "Naruto doesn't want to have to deal with Gato later, so he's dealing with him sooner." He explained, "but you don't have to worry, the clones will and the barrier will still be there to protect you guys while we're not here."

 

A couple minutes later and Naruto was coming back down the stairs. "Alright, let's get going." He stated without stopping on his way to the door, he opened it and went outside.

 

Zabuza and Haku got up and followed him, Haku paused by the door before following his master. "We thank you for the food, ma'am, it was delicious," he bowed to Tsunami before leaving the house. 

 

Shikamaru and Chouji were the next to leave, "wait, when should we be expecting you guys back?" Tazuna asked a little worriedly, even though he lied to them about the mission only being a C-rank because his village was so poor, he felt bad enough. He didn't want these kids to go off to face a tyrant like Gato and then die at his hands all because he lied to them. He wouldn't be able to sleep at night!

 

"With Naruto in charge, it shouldn't be all that long, so don't worry about it, okay guys?" Chouji encouraged them, even though he was feeling just as nervous about the mission ahead. 

 

With that said, the group of ninja checked all of their gear and left to find Gato's base. Zabuza had been there once and was able to remember most of the layout that he was allowed to see. To get to Gato's base, they had to first find one of Gato's supply ships, there were three that came and went to from the port that Gato took over when he took control of Wave for his business. The ships would come and go at least twice a day and once at night, he had overheard one of the pig's careless lackeys talking about would be on the ship that ran once at night on a seemingly random night. From what he overheard, that ship would only run at night once every two to three weeks, so they might or might not be in luck on this night. Zabuza didn't pay attention to what would be on each supply ship since his motto was to not ask questions when the price was right. If they were able to find a ship tonight, then they will have to find a way to bypass Gato's men that will be patrolling the island that Gato's hideout will be located on. They would have to be careful because like any paranoid businessman if even one guard doesn't check in during the designated times, security will be changed and/or tightened. That would suck for them because Zabuza was only able to memories the security situation from when he was last there. However, one good thing about Gato's island hideout is that they could be as loud as they wanted to be once they put an end to Gato, they wouldn't have to worry about civilians getting in the way either. And as luck would have it, the group had arrived just in time to see the last of the three ships getting ready to take off to Gato's island hid away.

 

The bad news is, that it seemed to already have most of the crew on board. 

 

"What should we do now? We have to get on that boat or else we'll have to find another way to get to Gato's base," Shikamaru stated as he analyzed the situation. "Maybe if we-where did Naruto go?" When he turned around to try to come up with a plan with the others, he noticed that Naruto was no longer standing with them. They were hiding behind a nearby abandoned building that used to be owned by a thriving fisherman before Gato came along and shut him down. Then killed him for defying him.

 

Zabuza pointed over to the boats, "looks like the little brat's taking care of the crew situation for us."

 

Everyone turned back to the boat when they heard a child's scream, a thud, and a splashing sound. When their eyes caught sight of Naruto again, two crew members were knocked out cold and one looked to be floating face down in the water. "You know, this kid might not be such a brat after all."

 

Naruto motioned everyone over to them just before the boat started to leave the dock. The ship wasn't huge, but it was still relatively big. It was big enough that once Naruto and the others slipped on board, they were able to stay out of sight from the crew. The trip to the island would take over two hours to reach the port, so they had plenty of time to spare. The group found an empty room that they could use to stay out of the way, but Naruto was never one to really stay in one place for too long, so he decided to gather information on what the ship was carrying to Gato's base. Haku was also interested in the subject and decided to follow the blond without him knowing. 

 

"Haku, you can come out now, I know you're following me," Naruto commented once he was near the hold and there was no one from the crew walking about. 

 

Haku jumped from his hiding place, landing next to Naruto, "you're senses are as sharp as ever, Foxy," he smirked.

 

"Oh, I thought you stopped calling me that," Naruto said as he turned back to crack the lock on the door he was standing in front of. He wasn't too sure, but he felt like this door lead down to the lower parts of the ship, the reason that he stopped to check this door out first before anything else on the ship was simple. While he was still outside, he saw one of the crew members trying to drag a child on board the ship. He jumped into action while the others were focused on the boat, he managed to save the child, telling them to run away before he got caught again. This led him to wonder what was really being loaded on this ship? It couldn't have just been food and water for just one man and his men, there had to be something more. And what was with the child? What were they going to do to him once they got to the island? Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he was going to find out anyway.

 

"What are you looking for?" Haku asked just as he heard a click from the door.

 

"If I'm lucky, a nail in the coffin, or some theoretical skeletons in a closet." The blond answered as he pulled the door open, he heard some faint footsteps coming from their left heading their way. "Come on, before we get caught." Haku nodded and followed Naruto through the door, he watched him close, they listened as the footsteps passed by the door casually. Once the sound was gone, Naruto secured the door and looked around, the place was dimly light, but he could make out some stairs going down a few feet away from them, "let's go see what this Gato guy's bringing home tonight." 

 

Haku followed the blond down the steps, making sure to be careful not to trip or fall, seeing as how they had no idea how far down the steps went. The further they went, the darker it became, thankfully, Naruto thought ahead and brought a flashlight. They made it to the bottom of the ship in next to no time. Naruto looked around for a light switch, when he found one, he flipped it on and looked around. He saw a bunch of crate and barrels filled with food, water, and alcohol, the usual stuff. "I don't see anything too out of the ordinary," Haku commented as he looked around a bit.

 

"Keep looking," Naruto said as he looked around at the normal looking crates, there were quite a few of them that looked to be a bit bigger than the rest. There were actually a lot of crats down there, if he didn't know any better, he would have said that this ship was meant to be some kind of freight ship or something. If that was all it was, then why did e have this bad feeling in his gut? Something wasn't right, he didn't know what, but he knew that it had to be something on this ship that was making him feel this way. He felt a little ill just breathing the air, it smelled off, not just stale, dusty air that you might find normal on an old ship. He also felt like he was missing something, something that was staring him right in the face, he really didn't like this feeling and wanted it to go away. Fast. Suddenly a light scraping sound caught his attention from one of the larger crates next to him. he walked over to it and put his ear flush against the wooden surface. Listening.

 

"Did you find something?" Haku asked walking over to him.

 

"Sshh," Naruto said softly and listened closer, he heard something faint, very faint, come from within. Like a breath, could it be...Naruto pushed away from the box and started looking around for something to open it with. 

 

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Haku asked.

 

Naruto reached into his weapon's pouch and retrieved two kunai from its depths, "help me open this thing. Hurry," Haku didn't ask questions and helped the blond out. They stabbed their kunai's into the side of the crate that seemed to be easiest to open, using all of their strength, they forced the thing open. They didn't give up intl they heard that satisfying crack that meant the nails that were holding the dame thing closed had finally relented and the crate was finally open. As the forced open wall of the heavy wooden box fell away, it brought with it two sounds. A loud thud and a sharp gasp of air, looking at what was locked away in the wooden box made Naruto's stomach turn.

 

There were children.

 

Five of them ranging from six to two years of age, give or take.

 

They were huddled together, fearful and scared, their eyes trailing from Naruto to Haku, and then the fallen wall of the crate. Naruto's eyes fell in the same direction and widened. There was another child, wrapped up in ragged blankets and was unmoving. Naruto rushed to the child's side, uncovering it to see the truth, this child looked to be the youngest of the group, maybe no more than five or six months old, at most. He chucked for a pulse and was released to feel one, but it was very faint. "Who are you guys, why are you down here in a crate, that's dangerous?!" Naruto berated them, but his anger wasn't directed at them, they were the ones that were locked in, and from the looks of it, the crate was sealed up tight. Almost airtight with only a single, tiny hole at the top to let in some air. 

 

"T-t-th-those m-m-men l-l-locked us i-in h-here," stutter one child, a little girl, who looked to be about five.

 

"A-a-are you he-here to s-save us?" Asked a boy so looked about six.

 

"...I can try, we're on the water right now, but I will find a way to get you guys out of here," Naruto promised. He looked over the fallen infant to see what was wrong with her, she was the palest thing he had ever seen. Her hair was completely white and her breathing was shallow, "we need to get you guys out of here fast, follow me," he ordered as he picked up the sickly child.

 

"Wait, what about the others?" Asked the six your old boy.

 

"Other?" Haku asked, finally finding his voice after the shock, "there are more of you?"

 

"I saw those mean men locking up other kids from the house in big boxes just like this." Stated a little girl with dirty blond hair, she looked to be about four, "I don't know if they made it to the other place yet because there were a lot of us being put into boxes."

 

"Damn it, I knew I had a bad feeling," Naruto curst under his breath, the child in his arms coughed, causing her breathing to become raspy. "Okay, we have no time to love, we'll have to check every box down here."

 

"I don't think we'll have enough time for that Naruto, we probably only have about an hour and a half until we reach the Gato's island." Haku said, "we're going to need some help."

 

Naruto nodded and created thirty clones, "okay, here's the plan. Ten of you will take the left, the other ten will take the right. The rest of you, I want you to help out where you can, but be on standby in case someone needs healing." He turned to Haku, "I want you to find Zabuza, Shikamaru, and Chouji and tell them to come here to help. Shika should know some basic media ninja skills that will help us out a lot. When we get to the island, I want all the kids to stay down here until we've taken care of Gato and his men. We'll come up with the rest from there, everyone clear?" 

 

"Yes, boss!" The clones said in unison and went off to do as they were told, Haku nodded. He turned and ran off towards the door in order to find the rest of their little team.

 

"What about Molly?" Asked a three-year-old boy, "she got sick a few days ago and hasn't gotten better. She's only getting worse because those meanies won't give her medicine!" The boy had tears in his eyes but Naruto patted him on the head, giving him a soft smile.

 

"Don't worry, every here will make it, I give you my word," the blond stated. He sat down with the sickly baby, now known as Molly, he places his hand over her with her with his eyes closed. The kids around him watched as his hand began to glow and some of the colors started to slowly come back to Molly's face. The kids were in awe of what they saw, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. 

 

Meanwhile, the clones were hard at work prying open every large and normal sized crate that they could get their hands on. The cargo hold started to get a little noisy as sounds of children crying for joy as they were released from their wooden prison filled the air. "Hey, boss! We found two women in this one," yelled one clone as he and his look-alike finished prying open another box.

 

"There's a girl about our age over here!" Came another clone.

 

"I found another baby in mine," one clone said coming over with another baby, this one looked to be even younger, about three months old and tiny. The clone was followed by a four-year-old boy that was coughing quite a bit, "he was with his brother and they're not looking so good."

 

"Okay, that's good, bring all the sick or injured people over here so that the reserved clones can heal them," Naruto stated calmly as he continued to focus on Molly.

 

A few minutes later, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Zabuza made their way down to the cargo hold with Haku's help. Shikamaru ran over to Naruto, "hey, Naruto, we're going to have to wrap this up soon, we're almost to the island," he warned.

 

"Not to mention that all this noise is getting the crew's attention," Chouji stated worriedly. "We were almost found out three times on the way over here. What if they radio Gato and tell him we're coming."

 

Naruto finished healing Molly and handed her over to the six-year-old boy that was in the crate with her. "Then we'll deal with it, for right now, we need to help these people out before we get to the island. Shikamaru, I would like you to help the reserved clones patch up anyone's wounds like I taught you. If we can find anything to help you with these crates while we're looking for other people, we'll bring it over."

 

"Uh, right, okay" Shikamaru nodded and found his way over to the reserved clones.

 

"Chouji, Haku, help me out with the crates, we still have a little more than half the hold to get through." 

 

"Right," Chouji and Haku nodded and went forth to help the other clones.

 

"And what am I supposed to do, brat?" Zabuza asked, his sword was ready to slice into something like butter. Unfortunately, Naruto didn't want to risk his sword accidentally hitting one of the prisoners of the crates, even if open them would go that much faster with his help. 

 

"You can go back up top and keep out any crew member that tries to come down. Handle it as you wish," Naruto said, knowing full well that Zabuza wouldn't mind doing just that.

 

**The island**

 

 

By the time the reached the island, there were still a few crates to open, but they were starting to find more of the actual supplies then they did people. Counting everyone, Naruto found that they had about forty children ranging from one month old to nine. Twelve teens ranging from twelve to sixteen. And five adults ranging from eighteen to twenty-one. Almost half of them were either injured during a previous beating or rape, and all were permanently traumatized for life with some scars to prove it. Both mental and physical. Naruto created five more clones to watch over the boat and fix any damage that might have been caused during the crew's panic of figuring out that there were intruders on board. Promising that they would be back soon, Naruto and friends made their way off the boat to face what laid ahead on the island. Fortunately, none of the crew manning the boat had managed to radio Gato about their presence there, so they had a window of clarity to get past the patrols. The Island that Gato chose as his hideout happened to be covered with trees that surrounded his large mansion, they used the cover of night to enter the building like ghost. They made quick work of the men that were patrolling the area as they made their way through, knocking them out cold for the moment. If Naruto had to give Gato credit, for one thing, it was his attention to detail, the little money hungry pig had an eye for art as it hung all over his walls. The mansion itself was constructed quite well too, all three stories of it had open rooms that were decorated lavishly, built around a languourous lifestyle. This would probably be Gato's downfall because he spotted a room with double doors and golden statues of lions on either side.

 

"That has to be his office or something," Shikamaru said the words that Naruto was thinking. 

 

"Something's not right," Zabuza commented as he looked at the doors. "There aren't any guards standing by the door, and I don't remember any lion statues standing outside his office last time.

 

"Maybe they're new," Chouji commented, "I mean, it fits the guy's M.O. of decorating at least."

 

Zabuza didn't seem convinced, "maybe." He stepped forward, heading towards the doors, "let me handle this one."

 

"What about our deal, Zabu?" Naruto asked leaning on the wall next to the spot that the missing ninja was standing.

 

"Don't worry about it kid, I'm just going to check something out." Zabuza stated as he put he grabbed the bandle of his sword on his back so that he was ready for anything. He kept walking until he was two feet in away from the golden status, his arm became a blur as he swung the large blade down. He jumped away before he saw the results of his swing, looking at the ground in front of him, he saw three sliced bullets laying on the floor. A second later, the lion statue on the right showed that it had been sliced along with the bullets, the top half fell to the floor showing that it had been cut diagonally.  "Looks like that fat bastard is more paranoid than I thought," he said as he looked over the door.

 

Naruto nodded, "then I'll take it from here, I think you just set off a silent alarm just now." He stated calmly as they heard rapid footsteps heading their way, he took out a kunai as he walked over to the door.

 

"So I have," Zabuza said, the sound of slight amusement entered his voice. "Fine, I'll leave this to you, make it quick. I don't want to face all these weaklings for nothing."

 

"Whatever," Naruto threw his kunai with a paper bomb in the direction that the bullets had come from. The explosion from the bomb rocked the building and revealed a few machineguns that were hidden near the ceiling the camouflage. "interesting," Naruto thought out loud just before lifting his leg and kicking in both doors at once, "knock, knock anybody home."

 

When the doors were kicked in, Gato was caught tying up the strings to his robe, "damn brat, don't you know how much those doors cost!" He yelled at Naruto, seeing that he was only a kid, Gato didn't feel like he had anything to fear.

 

But he was wrong.

 

Naruto looked around the room, this was definitely the office of a self-absorbed fool. There were diamond encrusted picture frames on the walls with pictures of Gato holding various expensive things like more diamonds and stuff. The desk was behind him was large and looked to be made of oak or mahogany with a glossy finish.  The carpet he was standing on was of high quality too, but the thing that took away most from the room was the bearskin rug at the center of the room that was under Gato's slippers. Naruto didn't know what he should feel bad for most, the skinned bear's family, or the bear's skin that was left behind only to be owned by this greedy man in a bathrobe. It was a toss-up at best. Naruto sighed, "okay, here's the deal, you come with me quietly and you might live a little bit longer. If you don't, then I might have to turn you into a rug too, your choice," stated.

 

Gato smirked, unafraid of the blond's threats."Hmph, how about this instead. I could give you a handsome price for so you can work for me and I'll even throw in one of these lovely sluts for your personal enjoyment. What do you think about that?" Naruto didn't like the tone in his voice. Gato stepped aside to reveal three girls that looked to be around nine or ten years old, their hands tied up behind their backs and their mouths were duck taped shut. It looked like they had been crying recently too, Naruto's stomach turned, but he kept his cool, making the short man think that the blond was considering his offer. As if he would. "Take your pick and name your price, become my bodyguard and I'll reward you fairly, deal?" He held out his hand for the blond to shake, his smirk getting more evil by the second.

 

Naruto looked at the hand before looking at Gato's face, he took a few steps forward until he was standing in front of the outstretched hand. "You want to know what I think of your deal, Gato?" He asked as he slowly removed his hands from his pockets, he caught a glimpse of the tied up girls, it looked like they were losing hope, but Gato looked like Christmas came early. In the blink of an eye, Gato's hand was missing, replaced by a waterfall of blood where his hand used to be. The shock f what happened delayed the fat man's reaction, but soon enough, he was screaming in pain, clutching the spot where his hand used to be. 

 

"AAAHH, DAMN IT! YOU SON OF A B-" Gato started, but a swift chop to the back of the neck shut him up quick enough.

 

Shikamaru ran into the room with a worried look on his face, while Zabuza, Haku, and Chouji were still taking down Gato's men outside the room. "Naruto, is everything okay?" He asked, looking for the blond, only to see he was fine, he spotted the three tied up girls that looked both confused and fearful. Then his eyes fell upon Gato, "is he..."

 

"No, he's not, sadly." Naruto said while scratching his head, "ah, it's fine, why don't you patch him up so he doesn't bleed out everywhere."

 

"I thought you said you were going to take care of him?" Shikamaru asked as he hesitantly made his way over to Gato. He didn't like the sight of blood very much, ever since his first C-rank mission with his own team to a bandit camp, he's hated the sight. Although, he wasn't crippled by the sight of it (unlike a certain sannin we know).

 

"I am going to take care of him," Naruto replied as he cut the ropes on the girls. "I'm going to make sure that he alive and well on our way back to the village where I can give the villagers a chance to get back at him for doing what he did. It's a fair trade if you ask me, if they don't kill him then, then I'll take it from there." He freed the last girl and knelt in front of them, "kay, as you can see, we're not here to hurt you. We can help you and anyone else that this guy took as a prisoner, but you have to cooperate with us, understood?" The girls nodded their heads slowly, the fear was still present in their eyes, but not as much as before, "good. Now, tell me, where are the others?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	14. Wave 9: Savior of "The Great Naruto bridge"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the end of the Wave Arc. Let me know how you enjoyed it.

The girls nodded their heads slowly, the fear was still present in their eyes, but not as much as before, "good. Now, tell me, where are the others?" 

 

One of the girls had light blue hair and gray eyes, her skin was fairly pale and she looked like she hadn't eaten in a while, so did the other two next to her. She was scared, they all were, however, she decided to be the brave one and spoke to the blond that saved them since he had yet to hurt them like the other males before him. "There's a room, below this mansion. He keeps all the kids in there when he's not using us to entertain his gross friends," she explained. 

 

"Can you show me where it is?" Naruto asked.

 

"I don't know, they always blindfold us whenever they take us out of the room. They never let us go anywhere in the house without covering our eyes first," the blue haired girl said sadly. "Sorry."

 

Naruto shook his head, "there's nothing to be sorry about," he stood up and turned to Shikamaru. "I'm going to search the house for the other kids, you and the others can start looking around up here."

 

"What should we be looking for?" Shikamaru asked as he finished bandaging up Gato's bleeding hand with the first air kid he took with him from the ship.

 

"Money, jewels, documents. Anything that you think might be useful, take it, I want to give Wave country something to help them get back on their feet again." Naruto stated as he started to walk out of the room.

 

"Wait!" Naruto turned back to see one of the three girls standing on shaky feet. Her skin looked to be tanned a natural olive color, much like Iruka's. Her hair was a bright yellow, like Naruto's, she also had amber eyes and looked to be the smaller of the three girls. 

 

"Yeah?" Naruto answered.

 

"I-I w-want to come with you," the tanned girl stated hesitantly. Though her amber eyes showed determination, her posture seemed to suggest that she wanted nothing to do with him.

 

"Oh? Do you know the way to the room you were held in with the others?" He asked.

 

"N-n-no..." she said sadly, for a moment she seemed to give up hope, but she shook her head and the look returned. More determined than ever, "b-but I remember the steps I took every time they took me out for parties. If I have my eyes closed, I can retrace my steps, I just know it!" She stared holes into the blond, not backing down with confidence to boot.

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "okay, lead the way," he said stepping aside so that she could walk through.

 

"Wha-really?!" The girl seemed surprised that he actually took her up on her offer.

 

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "why are you acting so surprised for? You said you would be able to retrace your steps, right? C'mon, we don't have all night, I want to get everyone off this island as fast as possible."

 

"U-uh, o-okay," the girl said as she took a hesitant step forward, she kept her eyes locked onto Naruto as she walked towards the door. 

 

"Winnie, wait! I can't let you go alone," said the third girl. This girl looked to be the oldest one, she had mismatching eyes dark gray and golden yellow. Her hair was a dark shade of pink and her skin was just as fair as the girl with light blue hair, maybe even a shade lighter.

 

"Amy? It's okay, I can do it! I remember the steps I took," said the tanned girl, aka, Winnie.

 

"But still, I don't want you going off alone, what if you don't come back!" Said the girl with the mismatching eyes, aka, Amy.

 

The girl with the blue hair stood up, backing up her friend, "Amy's right, Winnie, what if one of that guy's goons try to capture you while you're with this guy!" 

 

Now Winnie had tears in her eyes, "Amy, Annie, don't say that now I'm scared..."

 

Naruto wanted to roll his eyes at their mellow dramatic scene, but he held himself back. Although, Shikamaru found it to be somewhat amusing to watch. "You two can come too if you guys are so scared, then you should definitely go with your friend to make sure she stays safe."

 

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Nara but let it go, "fine, fine, whatever, can we hurry up and go. What if one of Gato's men is trying to dispose of your friends as we speak, did you think about that?" He raised a brow at them and waited patiently for them to finally make up their minds on what to do.

 

"Oh, she's right, we have to get going!" Said Amy, she turned to Winnie, "come on, led the way, Winnie."

 

"I'm on it!" Winnie said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, Naruto did roll his eyes this time but was thankful that they were getting a move on. Winnie closed her eyes and started walking, he grabbed her shoulder gently and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

 

"You were about to walk into a walk," he explained when she looked at him. 

 

"Oh, thanks," she said before closing her eyes again and continued walking. Naruto and the two other girls followed Winnie down the hallway, away from the one-sided fight Zabuza was having with the remaining guards for Gato. Haku spotted Naruto with the girls and tagged along while Chouji hung back with his best friend. No one said a word as Winnie retraced her steps, for a moment, the ninjas thought that the girl was probably lost and was leading them onto a wild goose chase. However, they were proven wrong when they met up with another pair of double doors. Winnie paused in front of them, feeling the wood under her fingers, "I think this is the first door we need to open to get there," she said with her eyes still closed.

 

"Are you sure, Winnie?" Amy asked neither of them had actually been able to see this much of the mansion before. To them, it was almost like seeing a whole new world.

 

Winnie nodded, Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "good enough for me." He said as he stepped forth and picked the lock, once the door was open, Winnie walked threw with everyone following. Behind the door was a long hall filled with rooms, some looked like bedrooms. Some looked like classrooms. There was one that sort of looked like a library, except instead of books on the shelves, there looked like there were weird devices in their place. Naruto caught a glimpse of Annie and Amy shiver when the caught sight of the room, he frowned at their reaction and made a note to look into the room later. At the end of the hall, they met up with another door, this one had a padlock on it that required an actual key to get in.

 

Naruto was about to pick the lock for this door too, but Haku stopped him. "Allow me," he stated as he took off his mask. Haku got close to the lock and blew on it, the lock slowly froze the more Haku blew on it. Once he was done, he used the kunai that Naruto had given him on the ship to break it, he stepped back and let Naruto pick the lock on the actual door. The door swung up to reveal stairs heading down to a dark room, so Naruto took out his flashlight.

 

"We're getting closer," Annie said as they followed their friend.

 

Winnie made her way down the steps with practiced ease. Each step into the dark made an echo that bounced off the walls. The further they went, the darker it got, without Naruto's flashlight, they wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of the room. There were no windows so far, the echoes that they heard made him think of the concrete walls of abandoned buildings, a few more steps and they reached the ground f the mansion's basement. Walking along, the sound of whispers started to fill the air, it made Naruto feel a little uneasy because he could sense anyone else down there with them, he didn't know why until his flashlight landed on yet another door This one was different, there because with the appearance of this door, came the smell of death. This put both ninjas on edge, the smell of death was very distinct and could never be mistaken for anything else. The smell only got stronger as they neared the door, Winnie opened her eyes and pointed to the door, "this is the place."

 

"A-are you sure?" Naruto asked.

 

Winni turned to him, she nodded her head confident, "yep, I would know that smell anywhere."

 

"You mean, it always smells like this?" Haku asked concerned colored his face, the nods he got from the girls were troubling.

 

Naruto shinned his light on the door as he got closer, he could make out a faint seal on the door, the kanji was a little faded, but still readable. "Prison...oh boy," Naruto sighed as he made a single hand sign, focusing his chakra before making a swiping motion down and out to the left. The fading seal on the door glowed a bright blue before fully fading away, impressing the girls, suddenly Naruto could sense many chakra signatures. He handed Haku the flashlight so he could take off the lock from the door. As he did, he noticed a light switch two switches on it, he opened the door and quickly covered his nose as he took a few steps back. The smell was overwhelming, enough to make anyone want to puke, the room was pitch black, the light from the flashlight wasn't doing much. It only showed one or two people that quickly scattered away from the light as soon as it fell on them. Thinking fast, Naruto reached for the light switch and flipped the first one, it took a few seconds before it did anything but the lights around them slowly flickered on. What they saw was a little shocking, the floors, walls, and ceiling were concrete, there were no windows, but there were two doors with the same fading ceil on them. The walls were most disturbing because not only were they dusty, they had stains on them that looked suspiciously like dried blood. Naruto reached for the other light and flipped it on, it illuminated the inside of the room this time, showing it to be large and filled with people dressed in rags. Winnie, Annie, and Amy ran into the room hugging people and telling everyone that they were back, the others in the room seemed happy, but didn't dare move in fear of the two others that were with them.

 

"Naruto," Haku called over to him, "let's open these next. There might be more of them in here," he was already standing in front of the other two doors that was down there. 

 

Naruto walked over to them and did the same thing, the first room showed that it was an inserter. The large fire making machine was burning brightly, but they couldn't see any wood or burnable things in the room. The room next to it looked like a butcher shop, but instead of dismembered animal parts, there were human parts instead. Naruto closed the door quickly before his dinner could come back up as he found the smell was strongest in that room. Looking around, he saw what looked like covered boxes stacked up on the far side of the room. "See if anyone in there needs medical attention and then led them upstairs, I'll join you when I'm done down here," he said as he spotted a pile of boxes stacked along the far wall of the basement. Some of them were covered, he was curious to see what was in them, but he wasn't sure if he was prepared to know, uncovering some of the boxes, he came to realize that these boxes were actually cages. Most of them were empty, but there were about two that had some kids locked inside, when he uncovered the boxes, the kids in the cage woke up and started huddling as best they could to the other side of the cage. They wore shackles and chains that were mostly rusted around their wrist and ankles, they looked up at Naruto with fear in their eyes, not knowing if they could trust him or not. Naruto doubted that they would be able to fully trust anyone ever again. 

 

The blond made a few clones that helped him release the children, they couldn't have been more eight to twelve years old. Right around his age, it broke his heart more than he would show, but he wouldn't let that stop him from helping them. He encouraged them to come out of their cages, going so far as to lift a few of them out himself since some had injured their legs at some point. Or someone hurt them enough that they weren't able to use them. Whatever the case may be, he wasn't leaving them, he would personally heal everyone once they got back upstairs. He ordered five of his clones to help move Gato's prisoners upstairs while he stayed downstairs with two clones to help him go through the boxes and search the rest of the basement for any more prisoners. He didn't find any, well, none that were living anyways, so he gathered up all the supplies he found such as food, water, and other goods. On the far side of the basement, he found some chicken feed, meaning that Gato must have animals hiding somewhere close by on the island. He made two more clones to go look, he couldn't make any more for the night if he wanted to have enough strength to heal people later. He checked his pack for storage scrolls, he was glad that he brought a few. He had four super storage scrolls that could hold twice as much stuff, four regular scrolls, and two compact storage scrolls he got from one of his henged closed that managed to become a seal master for the village. The compact scrolls were her newest inventions, she gave them to him a week ago for him to test out, looks like this would be a good time to do just that. The scroll worked by starting off small, about half the size of a regular scroll, then growing bigger to the size about the size of a summoning contract. She said it would be able to hold a lot, Naruto would be the judge of that.

 

**With the others upstairs**

 

By the time Haku found Zabuza and Shikamaru, all of Gato's remaining men were defeated. Shikamaru and Chouji managed to tie up Gato before he woke up. They taped his mouth shut too for good measure. "Hey, guys," Haku called a bit tiredly as he walked over to them.

 

Zabuza looked over the group of children and young adults with his apprentice. "Are these more prisoners?" He asked bluntly, Haku nodded, Zabuza glared in the direction of Gato's direction, "I figured as much." He slashed his sword to the side the get the blood off of it before putting it back on his back, "I'm going to go find this basterds vault, if Naruto asks, tell him that's where I am."

 

"Do you need any help, master?" Haku asked, even though the whole ordeal was draining him mentally, he was still physically ready to fight.

 

"Nah, why don't you hang out here and help with the prisoners. I'm sure once the kid comes, we'll be leaving this place soon enough anyway." Zabuza stated before he started walking down the opposite direction Haku came from. 

 

**One hour later**

 

Shikamaru yawned tiredly, he had looked over as many people as he could during the past hour. The first aid kid he brought could only treat so many people and he was starting to run low on supplies to treat everyone's wounds. He sent two of Naruto's clones to search the house for medicine that would disinfect cuts and take away their aches and pains. They were able to find enough painkillers, bandages, and disinfectant to open up a small clinic. Shikamaru was thankful for the small bit of training he got from Naruto about medicine, plus his own knowledge of herbs from his clan allowed him to help everyone. When the clones returned from their medicine searches, he asked them to go out and find a small list of herbs he remembered would surely grow on remote islands such as this one. He was surprised once more by the quickness of the clone's search, it looks as if there were plenty of medicinal herbs growing on this island. The help of Chouji and the remaining clones, he was able to make enough medicine for half the village of Wave, he made a note to take some home with him before their mission was over. When the hour had come to a close, all thirty-five of the prisoners were banged up and waiting peacefully, now that they knew they would no longer be held captive in a dark, cramped, smelly place anymore.

 

Also by this time, both Zabuza and Naruto, the real one, were making their way over to them. Arms full with Gato's treasures. "maa, maa, looks like everyone's ready to get going, ne?" Naruto said happily as he walked over to the group, there were two giant scrolls strapped to his back and his other two clones were holding a few of their own.

 

"I would say so, Gato's vault is completely empty now, thanks to me," Zabuza said proudly as he set down a large scroll of his own. "I guess we'll be heading out now, eh brat?"

 

Naruto nodded, "yep. I set two other clones out to look for something," he closed his eyes as he got the memories from one of his clones,  "one of the clones I sent out just dispelled. They were able to find a small farm close to where the dock is, so we can start heading back now."

 

"That might be a problem, Naru," Shikamaru announced, everyone turned to him to see a few kids asleep on his lap. "a couple of them just fell asleep on me, I can't move without waking them up."

 

"Same here," Haku said, having the same problem.

 

Naruto looked around him, most of the prisoners they just resued were already drifting off to sleep. He guessed that they needed the sleep after everything they been through, but there was no way that he was going to sleep in Gato's house. "Hmm...let me think." He snapped his fingers when an idea comes to mind, "Zabuza, can you teach me that shushin thing? I saw my sensei do it once, but he didn't use any hand signs that I would follow."

 

"Teach you? Aren't you a genin, that's at least a chunin level jutsu, you know." Zabuza answered, "and I don't see how you'll be able to learn it just like that, it's not that easy to learn at your stage."

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, I know, that's why I'm going to copy it." Before Zabuza could ask what he meant by that, Naruto activated his Sharingan. He had been practicing activating it every chance he got, he was able to get his Sharingan up to two tomose as of three days ago. Although, with the Wave mission going on, he hadn't had any free time to practice at this new level as of yet. This was his chance to actually use the Sharingan to do more than just practice on logs. It was then that he realized that this would be the first time that Shikamaru and Chouji would be seeing his dojutus, or at least knowing about it. "This is one of my bloodlines, the Sharingan," he closed his eyes and sent chakra to them to activate the ability when he opened his eyes, they showed red with two tomoe in each eye. "This is the famed Uchiha bloodline, but even though I'm not an Uchiha myself, I can still use this bloodline to its fullest." He could see the shock on both Shikamaru and Chouji's face, and awe on Haku's, he looked back to Zabuza's carefully neutral face. "Okay, now that I'm ready, show me the jutsu."

 

Zabuza looked at Naruto's eyes for a moment, he chuckled, "you're sure full of surprises, eh, brat? Fine, I'll show you the technic, you better watch closely because I'm not doing it twice.'

 

Naruto nodded his head and focused on Zabuza's movements. His Sharingan took in every detail from the chakra output to the control, hand signs seemed to be just a formality for beginners now that he thought about it. He analyzed the technic and closed his eyes to memorize it, pick it apart, and perform it. He nodded his head again when he felt that he was ready. He dispelled all the clones in the room to get all their memories of the recent events, once he had what he needed, he created twelve clones that scattered around the freed prisoners. They placed their hands on as many as they could, holding firmly, "we're going to take these guys back to the ship via shushin. Everyone hold tight." The prisoners obeyed Naruto's orders and held onto the clones, some were curious about what would happen next, some feared the coming events because of their past, either way, they were leaving their prison and that was all that really matters. The clones disappeared in swirls of leaves and gusts of wind, taking about one or two people at a time. A minute later, they came back and took another batch of people, coming back another minute later, they repeated the process until only Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, Haku, Zabuza, and the pig remained. "Okay, it's our turn," Naruto walked over to Shikamaru and Chouji, placing a hand onto their shoulders. Zabuza did the same for Haku and Gato, even though he would have just been fine with cutting the greedy man's head of right then and there...But he wanted to see what Naruto did with him, so he allowed the fat man to live a little longer. For now. They shushined back to the dock were the clones were loading all the freed prisoners onto the other two boats. When they arrived, a clone went up to them to make his report, "how are things going? Did you find anything on the other two boats?"

 

The clone nodded, "yes, we did. We found several women that had been chained up in the cargo hold. They were dehydrated and hungry, but we were able to give them some of the food we had made for the prisoners we freed on the boat. Other than what we already found, boat one mostly had alcohol and some fine meats and cheeses. Boat two, other than the four girls we found, part of the cargo hold had been turned into a freezer. When we looked at the content of most of the boxes and crates, we found a lot of disbodied limps and organs, along with a couple of gallons of blood. We didn't have the needed tools to see what type of blood it was, so have yet to find out if it's human or not. Boat three seemed to be the main ship for transporting prostitutes and general human trafficking, we found a captions log that confirms as much. As well as some falsified documents and contracts for some struggling business in various other countries that to have thrived greatly before the owners were tricked into signing them away to him." The clone glanced at Gato before turning back to Naruto, "while you were away, we were able to start making a small map of the places where the prisoners came from. It turns out that a large percent of the group are from Kiri," this made Haku pause, which made Zabuza pause away. "From what we were able to find out, it was mostly the kids from the first boat that came directly from Kiri, they said they managed to escape with the help of their parents and some other adults during the Bloodline Purge that's happening there. However, because of how they escaped, they don't know if their parents were able to make it out of there as well, we were wondering if we could have a look through the group you just brought over from the mansion."

 

As the clone explained, Naruto was starting to put two and two together. He would need to gather everyone up when they reached Wave so that he could try to sort out the parent issue. He didn't like the idea of innocent children having to face life alone, especially when they were so young. He will also be needing to take a long look at those documents his clones found to see if there was anything that could be done about them. The more he found out Gato, the more he identified the corrupt businessman as a stain on the blanket of humanity. A stain that needed to be washed away. "Hm, we'll sort out all of that when we get back to the village. Make sure that you prepare the ships for the trip back, make sure that everyone gets a hot meal, or at least a little something to eat and drink. In the morning, I'm going to gather the villagers and tell them everything we found."

 

"Huh? What good will that do?" Chouji asked, not really seeing how spreading this kind of news will benefit the villagers, other than knowing that Gato was taken down a peg.

 

"Because, Chouji, then they can see that they are not the only ones that were hurt so badly by Gato. Instead, they will be more informed on what they should do next." Naruto explained, "we can also use their help in trying to make new homes for everyone. New workers will make the bridge get built faster so we can leave sooner." He looked out over the ships while the other clones we doing final checks, "whether or not this news benefits them, Wave will still be rebuilt."

 

The clone nodded, "I'll let the others now the plan." The clone turned away for a second before turning back to the original, "also, while you were still inside, we felt the barrier around the jutsu deteriorate sooner than expected. We weren't sure if you were able to feel it so far away, but we think that Kakashi and the others might just end up breaking through it before the three-day mark."

 

Naruto nodded, "good to know. Let's hurry back before they get back to the house and find out we're not there."

 

The clone nodded and left to spread the news. Naruto walked over to the third ship since it should have enough space left for them to fit. With the last of the prisoners on board, the clones split themselves between the three ships to become the new crew. All three ships shoved off from the islands dock in rout for Wave. Taking into account the added weight of the newly freed prisoners, Gato's repossessed treasures, and supplies, the voyage would take a little longer to reach the village this time. That didn't matter so much to Naruto because he was tired, but he wasn't about to go to sleep until he's been able to check the prisoners they resued himself. He was hoping to use his Sharingan to erase the memories of their time as Gato's prisoners after healing them so that they could try to move on and have a normal life after all this.

 

**A few hours later**

 

The sun was just about to break over the horizon when the three ships returned to the village's dock. The child that Naruto had saved from being captured that night was sitting in a tree that had a clear enough view of the boats coming in. Since the time that Naruto had saved him, he had been worried that he wouldn't make it back. He had gone around the village trying to see if anyone would be willing to band together and help him save Naruto from Gato to repay the blond. However, there was no one in the village that was willing to help, he was about to give up hope until he came upon the bridge builders house. When he told the bridge builder and his family of what happened, they agreed to help in away way they could, Naruto and his friends had already done so much for them that they wanted to repay the favor as best they could. With that said, Tazuna, Tsunami, and even Inari followed the boy out to the dock to make plans, that is, until they saw the three boats starting to come in. Since the boy, Shin, had told them that Naruto had taken one boat, they waited and watched to see what would happen next. 

 

"Hey, HEY, I SEE HIM!" Shin yelled as he stood up on the tree branch, "IT'S NARUTO! He made it back alive!" He yelled as he climbed back down the tree. Inari was climbing down with him, it wasn't that Inari actually believed that Naruto and friends were actually able to defeat Gato and his men. But a little voice in the back of his mind was telling to hope, so he kept an open mind as he followed the two boys ran all the way to the dock, followed by Tsunami and the old man. They waited from a safe distance to see who would be the first to come out of the boat, they held their breaths as they saw one of the doors open but let it out once they saw ahead of blond hair and eyes that matched the ocean. The blond was followed out of the boat by some sleepy children and some other people of varying age groups. "Ha! I knew he could do it, didn't I, Inari!" Shin turned a bright happy smile to the other boy and his family as he pointed to the boat, "he even saved the others. How's that for a loser ninja, huh?" Shin laughed at Inari's speechless face. While Shin was trying to tell Inari's family of what happened with Naruto and those men that were trying to kidnap him, Inari kept on saying that it was impossible. But, the sight before them proved him wrong.

 

And Inari was thankful to be wrong.

 

After the other two boats docked and the passengers were let out onto dry land, Naruto took a count of everyone. There was close to sixty-five people that were rescued that night. Ten percent of them were reunited with some of their families. Twenty percent were reunited with their loved ones. While the rest of them, who were mostly children, orphans of the Bloodline Purge, didn't have anyone to take care of them. The clones helped unload all the things that Naruto brought back with them in the ship, including Zabuza's storage scroll will all the money Gato had stashed away in his mansion, along with some bank accounts from overseas. A few scrolls that Gato had stolen from missing ninjas he had hired for a job and then killed them when they were too tired to defend themselves. And then taking anything he thought would valuable from them so that he could sell it later. Naruto decided that he would give some of the money to Tazuna to help bring the village back on its feet again, and so that he could pay the rightful price for the C turned B and then A-ranked mission. Seeing as how Gato had enough money hidden in his vault to fund at least three hidden villages, the money that Naruto gave to the village was more than enough to help them rebuild their village. He let Zabuza and Haku keep some money for themselves since they did keep up their side of the bargain in getting them to the hideout and even helped out a lot while they were there. The rest of the money would be going with him, he had many things that he wanted to do once he got back to his own village, and a lot of those things required money to do them. He will also be taking the documents he his clones found with him to look them over and send revised versions back to the other parties involved that will allow them to take back their lives from Gato's claws. Later that morning, the word spread of Shikamaru, Chouji, Haku, Zabuza, and Naruto's successful joint efforts to take down Gato and save their village, everyone celebrated. Praising the five of them as heroes of the village, the villagers used the remaining supplies from Gato's ships to throw a party for them later that day.

 

"Oi, Naruto, I've really got to hand it to you, you're one amazing kid!" Tazuna said as the party went on in full swing around them, the old man was already drunk too.

 

Naruto chuckled, "nah, it's nothing, gramps, I came here with a mission to do, and that's all I did." He explained, "besides, it's not like I can just stand back and watch as others suffer at the hands of people like him." He jabbed a thumb over to the tree centered in the middle of the village where Gato had been tied up, there were some kids and adults taking turns throwing things at him as a party game. 

 

Tazuna nodded, "yeah, and I'm glad it was your team that came instead of someone else's. They probably wouldn't have done this much for us as you did." He rests a hand on Naruto's shoulder and smiled brightly, "I just want to let you know that if there is anything that our village can do for you in the future, just say the word. I just know that everyone here will be willing to back you up no matter what!" 

 

Naruto looked around to see everyone in hearing range was nodding their heads and smiling at him. Naruto smiled back, "thanks, I can always use more friends. But next time, try to be a little more truthful when you're asking for my help, I don't like liers, old man."

 

Everyone laughed, Tazuna scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed by his actions. "Yeah, I'll make sure to keep that in mind next time."

 

Just then, Shikamaru made his way over to the two and sat by Naruto's side under the shad. He had some of the kids from the boat following him, it seemed that they had gotten quite attached to him in the short amount of time. "Aw man, these guys keep following me like like a bunch of baby ducks, help me out Naruto," the Nara whined.

 

The blond and old man chuckled, "I donno, Shika-chan, I think you would make a pretty good momma if you ask me." This caused Shikamaru to blush as the image him and Naruto having kids of their own popped into his head.

 

"Mama! Mama! Play with us, Mama!" Yelled the kids as they pulled Shikamaru by the hand happily.

 

"Oh, alright, what should we play now?" Shikamaru said giving up the fight to rest.

 

Naruto watched as his future mate was dragged away by the kids they saved. As the Nara left, Haku came over in his place, "hey, Naruto, do you mind if we talk?" He asked.

 

"Sure," Naruto said, "what's on your mind?"

 

"Uhm, well, Naruto..." he started but took a moment to think about his next words, "I was wondering what will happen to the orphans. The one from Kiri I mean."

 

"Ah, it's no problem, we can take in some of the little brats now that the village doesn't have to worry about Gato anymore." Tazuna tried to reassure him.

 

Naruto thought about it, "Tazuna is right, the village could do that now that they don't really have Gato to worry about. However, the last time I counted, there are at least thirty orphans in total and ten of them are from Kiri. Even if the village could take in all of them, there would be a new issue of where to put them all."

 

Tazuna's drunk brain seemed to register what Naruto was saying, "whoa, you're right kid. Plus, this is only a civilian village, not a ninja one like Kiri. We wouldn't be able to teach them anything about being a ninja when they grow up."

 

"Then what would you suggest we do about that?" Haku asked.

 

Naruto could see that Haku had a suggestion, "what do you think we should do, Haku?"

 

"Me? Oh, uhm...I was thinking that I could probably take them with us when Zabuza and I leave tonight. But a life on the run would be hard on any child, especially when they still toddlers..."

 

Just then Chouji walked over with a kid on his back, followed by Annie, Amy, and Winnie. "Hey, what's up guys, whatcha talking about?" 

 

"Oh, hey, Cho, we were just talking about what to do with all the kids we saved from Gato," Naruto explained.

 

"What to do with them? What, can't they stay here?" Chouji asked as he let the kid on his back slid off and run over to Naruto, he just smiled and patted the child on the head. 

 

"There's not enough room for everyone," Haku stated. 

 

"Hmm, then why don't you make them apart of your clan, Naruto?" Chouji asked, surprising the blond.

 

"You're apart of a clan, kid? That's perfect, why don't we do that?" Tazuna said happily as if the problem had been solved.

 

Naruto shook his head, "I would, but my clan's fairly new. In fact, it's still in the baby stage, if you would, right now it's only me."

 

"If your clan's still new, what about your wives?" Haku asked, "while I was still living in Kiri, I heard that any new clan with a bloodline be made up from one person with the bloodline and multiple wives to breed with."

 

Naruto sweatdropped, "don't call it breeding. It sounds animalistic."

 

Haku shrugged his shoulders, "what, you're a fox, aren't you?" 

 

"Not the point," Naruto sighed, he also forgot how blunt Haku could be at times. "Either way, if I were to take the kids with bloodlines back to my village, they would probably be taken in and forced to make a clan of their own once they got older."

 

"What if we all just joined your clan?" Winnie asked curiously, the others looked at her, "what? He said his clan was small, so if we joined, it won't just be him anymore. He saved us, so I think we should go with him," she folded her arms and nodded as if it was final.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "whatever, I guess she does have some points. But there are some problems with that logic." 

 

Winnie frowned, "like what? Don't you get to live in a really big house when you're in a clan?" She asked.

 

Annie and Amy nodded, "yeah, that's how it worked in our village," Amy stated.

 

"Oh, are you from Kiri too?" Chouji asked.

 

Annie shook her head, "nope, the three of us come from Kumo."

 

"Kumo!" Naruto and Chouji asked in surprise.

 

Annie nodded, "then how did you get all the way to Wave and ended up with Gato?" Haku asked.

 

A dark look came over the girl's faces, "we don't want to talk about it," Winnie replied solemnly.

 

"Eh, right..." Naruto then closed his eyes and thought for a long time. "Hm, hmm...okay, here's what we're going to have to do. Tazuna, starting tomorrow, I want you to round us as many able-bodied people you can to help you build the bridge and start building houses. Everyone that came back with us will be needing a place to stay, we're also going to need to repair any damages to the village that Gato's men may have caused before. We'll need at least one hospital building and one Orphanage to house the extra kids for the night while we figure things out. We're also going to need to build a school since, for whatever reason, Gato's men decided to burn those particular buildings down. Haku, Chouji, I would like you to round up any teachers you can find and have them gather all the kids up to teach them while everyone else helps rebuild the village. We're also going to need to set up some defensive measures around the village, including around the docks and anywhere else that's vulnerable for infiltration and attack."

 

"Huh? How come, kid, what's up?" Tazuna asked, his worry was starting to sober him up.

 

"Because bandits like to target villages like this and take control. It'll be like having another Gato around," Naruto said as he opened his eyes. "We'll also need people with a background in medic that can teach other and run the hospitals when they're built. "

 

"Well, well, well, look at you. It's like your a natural born Kage," everyone looked up into the tree and saw Zabuza sitting there. 

 

"I don't know about," Naruto said as he rolled his neck, he was starting to get tired again. "Will you be willing to stick around for a little while longer, Zabu? Your help would be appreciated." 

 

Zabuza hopped down from the tree, landing behind Naruto, "I guess, it's not like I've got anything else to do right now. I might as well see what other surprises you have up yourselves."

 

Naruto shrugged and walked over to lean on the tree that Zabuza was just in. "Great," the blond slide down to the floor and closed his eyes, "we should enjoy the peace while it lasts, we've got a busy work day ahead of us tomorrow." As soon as he finished saying that, Zabuza noticed he had fallen asleep, so did everyone else soon after, so they left him alone to rest and headed back to the party.

 

* * *

 

**The following day**

 

 

The next morning, everyone in the village had gotten up bright and early and started cleaning up their village. The sound of construction could be heard from all over as the civilians got to work. Of course, the ninjas did their best to help out too. As Naruto said, Haku and Chouji were able to round up five teachers willing to teach all the children from twelve and under. Some of the teens would help watch the children and help the teacher as best they could, while the rest went off to join the adults at work. Since he was the head builder, Tazuna took charge in assigning things to the workers that volunteered to help with the building. There were quite a lot of people that volunteered to help with the construction, almost all the people that were rescued from Gato's mansion the night before agreed to help out. Those that were left were busying themselves cooking, making meals for the workers and children. Naruto had all of his clones help watch over the children and help rebuild the village, Chouji used his clan's expansion jutsu to help bring materials to the works. Haku decided that he would help the teachers and taught a class on herbal medicine. The class was also co-taught by Shikamaru who showed everyone the different uses of each herb and their uses. After lunch, the teachers allowed the kids to run around a bit in the first, away from all the construction, this let allowed Haku and Shikamaru see which of the children had bloodlines. They also ruled out who came from a ninja village or a regular village, there were twenty kids in all that came from ninja villages.

 

Ten from Kiri

  1. A six-year-old boy named Tamaki, blond with blue eyes.
  2. A five-year-old girl named Onka, blonde with brown eyes.
  3. A five-year-old girl named Tutu, brunet with green eyes.
  4. A five-year-old boy named Jojo, dark red hair and dark green eyes.
  5. A four-year-old boy named Han,  brown eyes and hair.
  6. A three-year-old boy named Sho,  blonde with platinum blond hair and silver eyes.
  7. A two-year-old girl named Jain, curly brown hair and silver eyes.
  8. A two-year-old girl Named Hanamay,  ash gry hair and eyes.
  9. A two-year-old boy named Dash, orange hair and brown eyes.
  10. And a five-month-old girl named Molly, brown hair and green eyes.



 

Five from Iwa

  1. A seven-year-old boy named Kanji, long blond hair and blue eyes.
  2. A four-year-old girl named Jen, with black hair and purple eyes.
  3. A two-year-old boy named Jin, short curly white hair and red eyes
  4. A two-year-old boy named Ash, short curly white hair and red eyes
  5. And a one-year-old boy and Jun, long blue hair and purplish eyes.



 

Three from Kumo

  1. Amy, ten years old, dark pink hair with one dark grey eye and one yellow-gold eye.
  2. Annie, ten years old, light blue hair and gray eyes
  3. Winni, nine-year-old, yellowish-blond hair and amber eyes.



 

One from Kuzo

  1. An eight-year-old girl named Shiro, bright red hair and purplish. 



 

And one from a small village named Taki 

  1. A six-year-old girl named Fuu, dark green hair and golden orange eyes.



 

Out of all the children listed, it turned out that Fuu was the only child that had been kidnapped while running away from her village. She told them the reason she was running away was because the villagers were meant to her and didn't want her around. They couldn't outwardly tell what bloodlines or skills the children had because of how young they were when they got kidnapped. Most of them weren't old enough to have training when they were taken from their homes and families, and the rest didn't have enough real training to actually defend themselves from their kidnappers. Judging from everything they found, Naruto was able to confirm his suspicions from last night, which was that, Gato was into human trafficking and harvesting organs to sell on the black market along with the stolen scrolls. But thankfully, he put a stop to all of that just in time, because the captain's log his clones found that night said that the children that had been on board the ship were scheduled to be sold that day. Naruto would have liked to track down all the kids that Gato had kidnapped, then sold off to who knows where and who, yet he did not have the time or manpower to do that. Even with his clones. While Naruto was busy helping out the villagers, he had a few of his clones look into the documents. They were able to find a couple of small loopholes that Gato seemed to have missed while making up the contracts. Taking that into account, the clones sent out letters to the business owners under the contract to tell them that their business will be saved since he was restructuring the contracts to be much fairer for everyone. His clones sent the letter with the revised contracts enclosed later that same day. By the end of the day, or at least close to the end of the day, the bridge was nearly halfway finished. The hospital, school, and orphanage were almost finished as well. The hospital's basic structure, even though not completed, was able to start treating people on one side while the other side was still under construction. The school was coming along nicely, it was a just a building with an empty room right now, although, there will be more details put in soon enough. The orphanage was the only thing that was close to being done since finding a place for everyone to stay was at the top of the of the list. So after Naruto suggested it, Tazuna had some people start working on it the day before right after the party ended. The repairs on the village were slower to get done because everyone was busy helping with the bridge, the hospital, school, orphanage, and other things. Although, that was not something that bothered them, so the slow pace was understood.

 

"Wow, this place is really coming back to life," Tsunami stated as she brought some food to the workers. 

 

Tazuna looked up from his work, he wiped the sweat from his brow as he greeted his daughter. "Yeah, I'd say, if it wasn't for the help of Naruto and his ninja friends, then I don't know where we would've been today."

 

"I'd say, oh, here's some dinner, I passed some of the workers in town on the way over. They said there's going to be another party tonight," Tsunami said happily.

 

"Really? But we just had one yesterday?" Tazuna said taking the food from his daughter before signaling to his workers that it's break time. "Don't get me wrong, I like a good party, but we've got a bridge to finish and a town to restore. Should we really be celebrating so much right now?"

 

"Are you turning down the invitation, dad?" Tsunami asked, "I heard some some some women wanted to thank you for going to the Leaf for help."

 

Tazuna shook his head as he started to follow the workers off the bridge,  "oh, well, in that case, let's party!" He laughed as the two made their way into town. When they did, they saw that everyone was already calling it quits for the day and were setting things up for the party. As they walked, they spotted Haku and Shikamaru leading a group of kids towards the square, "oi, Shikamaru, where's Naruto? The parties about to start."

 

Shikamaru turned to Tazuna, "huh, I don't know, he came to the forest during lunch to check on us, but then he left soon after."

 

"Ah, I see," said the old man, Shikamaru, and Haku continued onto the square with the group of kids.

 

"Hey, dad, speaking of Naruto," Tsunami began, "I think we should do something for him. He's already doing so much for us already, what do you think?"

 

Tazuna nodded, "yeah, that sounds like a good idea. That kid is like a natural born leader, so it'll have to be something special."

 

**Meanwhile, with Naruto.**

 

Last night when his clone told him what they felt while he was in the mansion, Naruto decided to check on the seal he had placed on their team. He made his way over to the area in the forest where he had left them, the seal was still active, it lay on the grassy floor like a rug. Standing over it were the still forms of Kakashi, Asuma, Ino, Sakura, and Sasuke. From the looks on their faces, it looked like they were starting to come close to breaking the seal he put them in. In reality, everything he had told them about the seal and how it really worked was a lie. This seal that they were standing on did pull them into a plain where they would have to fight the forest around them to survive. However, the thing about finding stuff there was sort of a lie, but also sort of not. One of Naruto's clones that became a seal master in the T&I unite came up with it. The seal would train them of their energy for however long it took them to reach a weakened state that would ensure that they wouldn't fight back during the interrogation. The seal only took a quarter of the user's energy to maintain and used the chakra drained from the prisoner to keep it working. But, from what he was observing, the seal was still incomplete in some way that the clone couldn't really figure out, which is why he gave Naruto the seal for a test run. The initial functions of the seal were working fine, yet it looked like the remainder of team seven and ten were about to break out of it somehow. Before they could though, Naruto checked the seal to see what was going on. The chakra drain was working, but it seemed that the adapter was having some trouble adapting the chakra to maintain its working order.

 

A second after he figured this out, Ino fell on her but, breathing heavy with exhaustion.

 

Sakura just about collapsed as if she had been forced to live without food or water for weeks. 

 

Sasuke only fell on one knee from exhaustion.

 

Kakashi just about fainted but was still continues.

 

And Asuma wasn't too far behind him as he too greeted the ground.

 

"That was so hard, I thought I was about to die when that last tree was about to hit me!" Ino whined tiredly, she looked around to see if there were any more moving trees around. That's when her eyes landed on Naruto, "YOU!!" She pointed accusingly at her fellow blond.

 

Naruto stood up from the ground after watching the seal disappear, "yep, it's me. How was the training, Ino, learn anything new?"

 

"Training?! That wasn't training, that was an attack on our lives! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!" Ino yelled at the vessel.

 

"Not possible, the seal is designed to drain chakra and adapt it to keep you locked in until you were too week to fight. It would have let you go if your chakra levels were getting too low," Naruto explained.

 

"A seal? Wait, you mean you were keeping us locked in to make us weak?!" The Yamanaka accused.

 

"Actually, I was testing you guys to see how long you would last in the seal. About two days and change seem to be about your limit," Naruto said as he took out a notepad to write that down. 

 

"YOU KEPT US IN THERE FOR TWO DAYS!!" Came the scream of one Sakura Haruno.

 

"Either that or the seal just couldn't handle all of your chakras at once, either way, you're out now. Test over." Naruto was hoping the seal would have just kept her tired enough that she couldn't scream like that for a while. Looks like he would have to talk to his clone about that.

 

"Eh, Naruto, it sounds like you were using us as some sort of lab rats or something for this jutsu..." Asuma said as he took out a fresh cigaret from his pocket. He looked up at Naruto when he didn't get a reply, he sweatdropped, "you were, weren't you?"

 

"I didn't say that," Naruto said turning his head to the side to look the other way.

 

Sasuke growled, "NARUTO!! You're going to pay for this!!" He tried to get up, but his legs wouldn't let him, "damn it dobe, what did you do to us!"

 

"Weren't you listening? I tested a seal on you, you should listen more Sasuke, it could save your life someday." Naruto said as he summoned one of his tigers, two large ones showed up, "Pi, Chichi, get them to the house so they can rest."

 

Pi looked over at Sakura then back to Naruto, "I told you that I'm allergic to flamingos."

 

"Me too, boss," Chacha said.

 

"HEY! I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!!" Sakura screamed.

 

"This one's really loud too, I really don't like the loud ones," Chichi said while rolling her eyes.

 

Naruto yawned, "deal with it. She may be all pink, but she's nowhere as graceful as a flamingo, she more like a pink duckling instead. One without sight, I might add." He got a glare from Sakura, which he ignored, he turned away from them, "when you're done with them, you can find your reward on the island on the north-eastside. I've got a party to go to, see ya."

 

"Party? who would throw a party with the state that Wave is in?" Ino asked as she allowed Pi to her up and by the back of her top and place her on Chichi's back.

 

"Yeah, and who would even want you there?" Sakura asked truly confused.

 

"Oh, right, I forgot I almost, Wave is no longer in danger from Gato anymore," Naruto said ignoring Sakura's comment.

 

"Yeah right, as if a dobe like you could fight off anyone," Sasuke said as Pi picked him up and placed him on Chichi's back as well.

 

Naruto shook his head, "whatever, believe what you want. I'm leaving."

 

"Hold on Naruto, you still have to be punished for what you just did," Kakashi finally said.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "bite me, Kakashi, you were already sending this mission to hell in a handbasket when you challenged me on the way to the village. You're lucky that I haven't sent in a message to the Hokage about all of this just yet. You should be thanking me."

 

Kakashi glared at the blond with his good eye, "we'll see about that when we get back, won't we."

 

"...Yes, yes we will. Excuse me," Naruto turned and left the field without another word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	15. Hello and goodbyes

After that, the days in Wave followed a simple schedule of everyone waking, going to work, having lunch, then celebrating another day of freedom with a small party at sunset. The orphanage was built on the second day after Naruto came back from Gato's island. The Hospital was fully functioning and was almost as large enough to house almost half the village if needed by the fourth day. The school was being used by the third day when the initial structure was deemed safe to have classes in, there was even a small playground built nearby the school for the kids to play on. By the fifth day, all damages to the village had been fixed and the bridge was almost fully complete. By the sixth day, everything was fully operational, the village was even livelier than usual, and the bridge was finally complete. With came the biggest party that the village had even thrown and they decided to have it in Naruto's honor, calling him a hero and all. 

 

Throughout all of this, Sasuke and Sakura were not pleased. 

 

And Kakashi was a little pissed.

 

After their recovery, Ino went into town with Asuma while Kakashi took Sasuke and Sasuke into the forest for training. They finally learned the tree walking thing with Sakura getting it right away because of her small reserves and Sasuke struggled with it. Ino and Asuma mat up with Shikamaru and Haku at the school, they had Chouji lead them there since he was already on his was there aways. Asuma was impressed and a little surprised to see Shikamaru teaching a class on herbal medicine, even though it made sense because of his clan, but the Naras were usually too laid back to deal with a class of rowdy kids. Hence why you haven't seen anyone in Konoha says Nara Sensei at any time. But Shikamaru might be changing that very soon. They sat in on the class so that they could talk to Shikamaru and find out what happened while they were in the seal when they heard everything, the two were shocked by Naruto's actions and disgusted by Gato's. Of course, they agreed that they, too, would help speed up Wave's recover. Asuma joined Tazuna on the bridge while Ino helped Chouji and the other make and deliver food and materials around the town. By the seventh day, Sasuke had managed to get halfway up the tree, Sakura wondered around seeing what she could help with since Kakashi told her she was done with training. And Kakashi kept an eye on Sasuke's progress, it was a little slow, but it was progress nonetheless. At night when it got dark out, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura would either hang out at Tazuna's house while everyone was celebrating the village's independence from the tycoon or go to the said celebration. Whenever they did though, they had to put up with hearing people thank Naruto for saving the village instead of them.

 

They were very salty about it, it seems.

 

Team ten didn't see why they were acting this way. They found it to be a little petty, then again, Ino and Asuma did not like the fact that Naruto locked them into a seal for about two days. But, because Naruto did lock them in a seal for two days, Ino was finally able to get rid of her fangirl side. She was given a wakeup call on how weak she actually was compared to her other classmates and had vowed she would no longer skip out on the hard work that came with training. In fact, she asked her sensei if it was alright if he could give her some extra training when they got back to the village. After everything was rebuilt, all the workers took the day off to just relax and enjoy life. That's Including the ninjas that helped with the work. Sakura did to somethings, like help make the food. But it was soon discovered that she couldn't cook to save her own life and was left with helping with delivers. On the eight and final day, both teams were ready to leave to head back to the village. 

 

* * *

 

**At the bridge**

 

Today was the day that the teams were leaving. After recent events, they were a little sad to leave, but their job was done and they had to. Both teams were meeting at the bridge so that they could say goodbye to all the villagers as they left. But they were missing three people, "grr, where is that Naruto-baka!" Sakura complained.

 

"Just be patient, Sakura, he'll show. I remembered to tell him the time that we were leaving before he left the house yesterday so he would be on his way." Kakashi said in a lazy tone as he read his porn openly.

 

"Hn, I say we should just leave him," Sasuke stated coldly.

 

Ino rolled her eyes, "jeez, what's wrong with you guys. Naruto worked hard yesterday, unlike some people," he glared at Sakura and Kakashi, "give him a break."

 

Before Sakura could make a comeback, the crowd of villagers that were gathered around the bridge to say goodbye started to part. They made way for someone to come through, the ninjas looked to see who it was and saw Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji walking over to them. Followed by Zabuza and Haku, instantly, Kakashi went on guard, as did Sasuke while Sakura hid behind them. "Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, get away from those two, they're-"

 

"Coming with us to the village," Naruto stated as he stood in front of the crowd. Now that he had arrived, the villagers started saying their farewells, expressing their thanks, and giving gifts to show their gratitude to Naruto. As well as their other saviors of that night, including Zabuza and Haku. even Asuma and Ino got a little something for their troubles.

 

Seeing Zabuza Momochi receiving thanks and praise from the villagers confused Kakashi even more. Sakura and Sasuke were just as confused, but not Asuma and his team because they already got the full story about what happened from the villagers. Kakashi and his other two students didn't understand what was going on because they never bothered to really ask how Naruto managed to defeat Gato in the first place. "Huh? What's going on, what happened while we were away?"

 

"Huh? No one told you what happened?" Asked one villager that heard Kakashi. This person also happened to be one of the people that Naruto saved from Gato's basement that night not too long ago. When Kakashi shook his head, the villager took it upon himself to fill in the clueless ninjas on everything that happened. "So you see, we are not just grateful to Uzumaki-sama, but are intended to him," the man explained.

 

"Wha-there's no way that Naruto did all of that! You're lying!" Sakura protested, "it's not like he's strong like Sasuke-kun!" 

 

Ino cringed at the pinkette, she looked to her teammates as they came to stand by her after receiving an armful of gifts. "Was I that bad?" She asked.

 

"Well, we wouldn't say you weren't..." Chouji started.

 

"You were definitely somewhat tame when it came to fangirls," Shikamaru finished his friend's thoughts.

 

Ino pouted, "then I'm glad that I snapped out of it when I did," she shivered.

 

Naruto sealed the last of his gifts from the villagers and looked into the crowd. "Is everyone ready?" 

 

"Finally, let's g-" Sasuke was cut off by Naruto.

 

"Not you, Sasuke, not everything is about you, sheesh." The blond rolled his eyes as he turned back to the group of kids that had gathered around Naruto while he was collecting his parting gifts. "Is everyone here?" He asked as he did a head count, everyone was present and accounted for, "okay, let's get going."

 

"Okay!" The kids said in unison and followed the blond over to the ninjas happily.

 

By now, Kakashi had had enough, he put his foot down and stepped in front of Naruto. "Where do you think you're going with all of these kids, Naruto? This isn't a babysitting mission," the one-eyed jonin folded his arms as he looked at his blond student sternly.

 

"Nope, it's not, but as their new guardian, I have a responsibility to take care of them. Is that a problem?" Naruto asked returning Kakashi's stare.

 

Kakashi backed down, "since when are you their guardian? You only just became a genin, you don't have the authority to adopt anyone. Especially not a school of kids." He looked over at the villagers, "where are their parents? They have to be missing them by now."

 

"Oi, Kakashi, weren't you listening when that guy explained things to you?" Asuma asked in an exasperated manner.

 

"Oh, I was," Kakashi said turning to the Sarutobi, "but still, wouldn't it be better to leave them here and send word to their villages to see if anyone missing any kids?"

 

"And with that, I know you weren't listening well enough," Naruto sighed.

 

Kakashi glared at the blond vessel, "what was that?"

 

"You heard me Kakashi, besides, you're still not in charge of the mission. I am," the blond said, irritated with his so-called sensei, "when I said that I was the taking over the mission, I meant it. I saw the way you were trying to lead this mission and I put a stop to it, like it or not, I'm not taking orders from you."

 

"Are you going Awall, genin?" Kakashi asked threateningly, the small hint of killing intent he was sending to Naruto was frightening the kids. It put everyone else on edge, a fight was hanging in the air, one wrong move and there would be a battle. 

 

Naruto stayed calm though, he wasn't about to let Kakashi's bad attitude ruin a good day. He had a lot of documents to fill out later when he got back and he was trying to build up his patients so he could deal with it. Also, the civilian council was no doubt going to be trying something so and he knew it would have something to do with either his new clan. Home. Mates. Or any of the hundreds of things that they could possibly come up with. He didn't have the patience to deal with Kakashi, he rests a hand on Fuu's head because she looked the most scared out of the children at his side. "Kakashi-"

 

"That's sensei to you, genin," Kakashi cut in, still playing the rank card.

 

Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds. Everyone watched with bated breath as they waited for the blond to say something. "Very well then,  _sensei_ , I'll have you know that once I get back to the village, I will be telling the Hokage everything that happened. Start to finish. It is my choice to bring these kids with me, not yours." Kakashi glared, he was about to say something when Naruto's eyes flashed red for a second, followed by a light wave of killing intent. It may have been light, but it was still strong enough to shut the Hatake up, for now anyway.

 

"WAIT!!" Naruto paused at the sound of Tazuna's voice, he turned around to see the old man running over to the bridge.

 

"Hey, old man, you nearly missed us," Naruto said as the bridge builder caught his breath.

 

"Well, it's a good thing that Inari came to wake me up when he did." Tazuna huffed and puffed for a few seconds more before standing up straight. "Okay, I'm good now. Naruto Uzumaki, to thank you for saving us in our time of need, I would like to give you a special gift."

 

"What, more gifts?!" Sakura whined, "what about Sasuke-kun, he helped save you from that guy?" She said pointing to Zabuza who was leaning on the side of the bridge, waiting quietly.

 

Zabuza rolled his eyes when Sakura pointed a finger at him, "yeah, well, he was a bigger help to us when he led Naruto to Gato's island so that's all in the past now." One of the villagers spoke up.

 

"He also helped rebuild the village too," said another villager.

 

"Yeah, see, water under the bridge," Tazuna chuckled at his own little joke. Some people chuckled a little bit too, he turned back to Naruto when the boy spoke.

 

"It's really not necessary to give me so much. I just did what I thought was right," Naruto commented.

 

Tsunami came up behind her father, "oh, but this gift his actually for everyone and will be with us always." 

 

The father and daughter nodded their heads and a sheet that had been covering the top part of the bridge entrance fell away. "From this day forth, this bridge will be named, 'The Great Naruto Bridge'!" The crowd of villagers erupted as they cheered loudly, clapping and whistling with pride.

 

"That's not all," Tsunami said, "because of your friends, we've named the park near the school after Chouji. The Hospital after Haku, the orphanage after Shikamaru-" she counted when Shikamaru heard his name.

 

"Me? Why'd you name it after me? I didn't do much," the Nara said with a little blush on his face.

 

"Nonsense, Shika-chan, you did plenty," Naruto said with a bright smile on his face. He pulled Shikamaru into a side hug, "you worked late into the hours treating wounds and helped bandage up injuries. You're a budding medic!" He praised, making Shikamaru blush more.

 

"Hoo, hoo, does Shika-chan have a crush~" Ino teased while Asuma and Chouji chuckled.

 

"We also named our new library after you too, Naruto-nii-san," Inari said as he came over to the blond. "Oh, here, this letter from the Dimio came in yesterday, it's addressed to you." Inari handed Naruto the letter and Naruto thanked him. After the night Gato was taken out, Inari apologized repeatedly to Naruto for how rude he had been acting. Naruto had already forgiven him because he knew the boy wasn't really mad at him.

 

"If that's everything, then we better be on our way," Naruto said as he waved goodbye to the crowd. He started walking across the bridge his was named after and felt the swell of warmed fill his chest. He was joined back Zabuza and Haku who followed him like shadows. Shikamaru stayed by his side and Chouji ran to catch up to the couple with the kids in tow. Ino wouldn't miss her chance to find out when the two boys had started dating, she was a grapevine, after all, she had to have the scoop of everything gossip related. Asuma followed behind his students, only sparing a single glance back to see if the rest of team seven was following, but didn't pay them any mind. With his time spent in the village rebuilding, he was able to see Naruto taking charge as a real leader would. Other than the large shadow clone numbers the blond could do  _and_ maintain, he was also able to witness Naruto performing other technics such as water walking, tree walking, and small low-level elemental jutsus. He was impressed that Naruto could do so much and wondered who trained him, if not Kakashi. Clearly whoever it was, was a far better sense to the blond than Kakashi was to all of his students combined. Asuma wanted to keep an eye on him, he could sense that Naruto was still hiding his skills, going off of what he heard of that night, he believed it more and more by the second. When Kakashi and his two students realized that they were being left behind, they hurried to catch up with them. 

 

* * *

**Two days later**

 

After leaving the village, Naruto decided that he would summon Pi again, along with some friends, to help with travel. Since he had children five and under traveling with them, he knew the trip would be just as long as it had been when they were on the way to Wave. So, instead of having to do a bunch of stops so the kids could rest, Naruto asked Pi and friends if they could carry the kids and their bags because they had gotten so much stuff from the villagers for their help. Pi agreed and went back to the summoning realm to get something to carry the children in. They also brought back something to help lighten the weight of Naruto's, Shikamaru's, and Chouji's bags that had been weighted down from all their gifts. Naruto loaded the kids into the carriage that Pi brought while he, Shikamaru, Chouji, and the others walked. Sakura complained about how it wasn't fair that she and Ino couldn't get a ride with the kids, but Ino didn't see the point in her argument and sided with Naruto. Besides, she was fine with traveling on foot, that was the ninja way to do it, however, it seemed that Sakura had forgotten about that. Meanwhile, while this conversation was going on, Kakashi and Sasuke had left the rest of the group behind since he wanted to be the first one back to the village to give the Hokage the mission report. He thought that the kids would only slow them down, Sasuke shared this opinion and took off with his sensei.

 

But Naruto didn't care who reached the village first because he had already sent a message to the Hokage keeping him up to date on the mission while they were still in Wave.

 

With only Sasuke and Kakashi going off on their own, they were free to travel as long and as fast as they pleased. They did take a break in a town that was near the village for fifteen minutes and still managed to reach the village gates near the end of the day. "Team seven reporting in from the Wave mission, Hokage-sama," Kakashi announced as he and Sasuke went to give their report without the rest of their team. 

 

"Oh, Kakashi, what happened to the rest of your team? If I remember correctly, I sent two teams, not two people." Hiruzen stated as he looked at Kakashi with a neutral look on his face. By this point, he had not yet received the message that Naruto had sent, so he was still in the dark about what Kakashi and the others had done.

 

"Yes, Hokage-sama, you did," Kakashi replied.

 

"So then, where are the rest the members? Did something happen on the mission?" The third asked, he was getting suspicious of Kakashi, he had never known him to just up and leave teammates before. Especially since his motto was 'Those who abandoned their friends are worse than scum' and stuff. 

 

"Yes, about that," the copy ninja started. "When we started the mission, we were attacked by a couple of chunin level ninjas. Sasuke was trying to take them out, but Naruto stepped in and tried to get in his way. Once the demon brothers were defeated, Naruto attempted to take over the mission even when I tried to talk him down. He became hostile and took over the mission anyway, so I allowed him to think that he was in charge so that I could observe his actions. From there, he went Awall and locked me, Asuma, Sakura, Sasuke, and Ino inside of some sort of seal that might have killed us if we hadn't escaped in time. When we did make it out and find out what happened, Naruto had left the client and his family open to the enemy while he went off gallivanting somewhere instead of doing the job that he was assigned to do."

 

Hiruzen couldn't believe he hears. He looked to Sasuke, "is this true, Sasuke?" He asked, hoping that Sasuke wouldn't lie to him.

 

Sasuke nodded, "hn, I don't know how he did it, but the dobe did manage to trick us into training only to trap us in a seal. He said that it was meant to drain our powers or something. Whatever that thing was he put us in, it did drain a lot of our energy."

 

"Hmm, I see, where are Naruto and the others now?" Hiruzen asked.

 

"Oh, Naruto's on his way with the others right now, but they will be showing up a little later on," Kakashi stated.

 

"How so? What's keeping them?"

 

"The dobe kidnapped some kids and said he was bringing them back to the village with him for some reason." Sasuke stated with a shrug of his shoulders, "I don't know what he's planning to do with them when he gets here though."

 

Hiruzen nodded, "very well, I'll have some of my ninjas go and meet them so they could be escorted back to the village. I'll be dealing with the situation from here on out, and will be assigning his punishment accordingly. You two are dismissed."

 

Kakashi bowed, "thank you, Hokage-sama," he then turned and left with his one remaining student.

 

But, before Kakashi could fully walk out of the office, Hiruzen stopped him, "Kakashi, a moment, please."

 

Kakashi closed the door after Sasuke left and went to stand in front of Hiruzen's desk, "yes, Hokage-sama?"

 

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and looked at his ninja. "Kakashi, tell me, what is your assessment of Naruto Uzumaki on this mission? Why do you think he did what you say he did?"

 

"Parden?" Kakashi asked wondering if the elder male didn't believe him.

 

"What I'm saying is, do you believe that his behavior has anything to do with  _it_?"

 

A light went off in Kakashi's head, "yes, sir, I have a feeling it just might. It wasn't all too clear at the time, but looking back on his actions, I think that Naruto might be losing his grip on the Kyuubi's powers. I think the fox's influence is starting to take over him little by little."

 

Hiruzen took out his pipe as he thought. He blew out a fine stream of smoke before he answered, "very well then, it looks like I'll have to restrain him once he finally gets back to the village." He glanced up at Kakashi, "try not to let the others find out when they arrive, I don't want there to be a panic in the streets, you're dismissed." Kakashi saluted his kage and left the office without a care in the world while Hiruzen glanced out his window,  _"something doesn't smell right. I'll have to see what's really going on when Naruto arrives, but in the meantime, I'll just send someone out to make sure that nothing happens to the boy on his way back. I'm sure if the elders heard about this, they would be the first ones in line to throw him under the bus for everything wrong in the world."_ He signaled for one of his ANBU guards to approach his desk, "Lion, I would like you to take a team with you to track down Naruto and the rest of teams seven and ten. I want you to send a message once you've found them, make sure to take someone that is familiar with sealing so that they could have a look at Naruto's seal once they're found. I would like to have an honest opinion on if the Kyuubi is getting ready to break the seal or not. Also, while you're escorting them back to the village, I would like you to pick someone to send to wave to get a detailed report from the villagers on what really happened there." He looked at Lion as he let out another breath of smoke, "you're dismissed."

 

"Sir," the ANBU disappeared in a puff of smoke without another word.

 

When Hiruzen was alone again in his office, he looked back at the window, he saw a small fox kit sitting outside. He got up and walked over to the window, "where did you come from?" He asked the little kits, the fox didn't answer, instead, it jumped into his office and hopped onto his desk. Hiruzen closed the window and walked over to the desk when he noticed the little kit had something in its mouth, it was a scroll, "what's this?" He held out his hand and the kit gave the kage the scroll before disappearing in a plume of smoke, understanding how summons worked, he opened the scroll and read its contents. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**

 


End file.
